Let us turn to God's Word once
again. We turn to Luke chapter 23. This morning considering the
verses 44 and 45. Luke chapter 23 and verses 44
and 45. 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. Part of that description, of
course, of the dreadful scene in the crucifixion of Him who
is the Lord of Glory, even the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this
morning I want us to consider the significance of the darkness
at Calvary as the Lord Jesus Christ is making that one great
sacrifice for sins forever. 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. Two things I want us to observe
to divide what I have to say into these two sections. First
of all that the darkness was a fearful darkness and then secondly
that it was also a darkness to be felt. First of all a fearful
darkness. What do we see here? We have
surely the testimony of nature to this remarkable scene. Men are so unmoved by what is
happening and yet the inanimate creation is clearly affected
by the sight. In verse 45 we are told the sun
was darkened. Matthew tells us something else
concerning nature. There in Matthew 27 and verse
51 we read that the earth did quake and the rocks rent. The hymn writer Joseph Hart can
write then, the rocks can rent, the earth can quake, the seas
can roar, the mountains shake, of feeling all things show some
sign, but this unfeeling heart of mine. And can we not bear
our own testimony to the truth of those words of the Christian
poet that so often we can read these things or hear these things
read and even hear the scene opened up and preached upon and
yet it leaves us all together ennui. There are those occasions
at last when those of us who are professed believers in the
Lord Jesus can come and observe that holy ordinance of his supper
and yet it leaves us completely untouched, completely unmoved. How remarkable it is that nature
itself, inanimate things seem to be affected and yet human
hearts are altogether unmoved. We know that the curse of sin
has affected the whole of creation. in Genesis chapter 3 remember
how the Lord God speaks to the man Adam and tells him what is
the consequence of that sin of disobedience that he and Eve
were so guilty of there in Genesis 3 at verse 17 unto Adam he said
because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife and hath
eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not
eat of it. 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. In the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, for out of it
wast thou taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou
return. There is a cursing upon the creation
because of the sin of Adam and Eve. The whole creation groaneth
and travaileth together unto Onesius the apostle Paul to the
Romans, all because of man's sin. And so in scripture there
are those various occasions when we see our nature is called upon
to testify against sin. That sin that has reached even
to the inanimate creature. Several times in Deuteronomy
we find Moses, as it were, appealing to the nature to bear its testimony. In Deuteronomy chapter 4, if
we read a little further in that chapter we would have seen it
there in Deuteronomy chapter 4 verses 25 and particularly
verse 26, verse 25 Moses writes, 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 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
be utterly destroyed. Here he calls then upon heaven
and earth to bear its witness. And then again we see it at the
end of that book of Deuteronomy in chapter 31 and there in verse
28 and twenty-nine. Verse twenty-eight. Gather unto
me all the elders of your tribes 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 shall 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 again
then he is calling the inanimate creature to bear witness. The
opening of chapter 32 give ear O ye heavens and I will speak
and hear O earth the words of my mouth. And it's not just in
the writings of Moses that we see this appeal to the creature,
the inanimate creature. We see it also in the prophecy
of Isaiah, and there, in the opening words of his book, he
addresses the creation In verse 2 of chapter 1, 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, and the ass his master's crib. But
Israel doth not know my people, doth not consider our sinful
nation. The people laden with iniquity,
a seed of evil do as children that are corrupted. He speaks
then to the heavens, he speaks to the earth to bear their testament
and we see it here of course in the dying of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Nature testifies and it testifies
for the three hours, three hours of great darkness had come over
the face of the hall of creation. 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 twain. In that lovely hymn on the crucifixion
of Christ, that long hymn that's divided into two parts, 153. There in the second part of the
hymn, at verse 3, we find Joseph Hart again referring to the witness
of rocks and of mountains. When rocks and mountains rent
with dreads, And gaping graves gave up their deads, When the
fair sun 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
unmoved thy blood's rich stream nor ever dreamt it flowed for
him how profitable it is friends sometimes to take up the hymn
book and to read these verses and to meditate in that scene
that is being described by the poet. We see it here then on
the page of Holy Scripture. It was a fearful darkness, the
most unnatural darkness that came over the whole of creation
as the Lord Jesus Christ was making that great sacrifice for
sins, and whose sins? It was for the sins of sinful
men, and yet the inanimate creature is appalled at the scene though
men themselves seem to be so utterly untouched by these things. Now furthermore with regards
to the darkness it's fearful as we see it in terms of the
of the natural scene but it is also fearful in this that it
is a reminder of all the blackness and the darkness of hell itself
Isn't that what hell is called? It's referred to as outer darkness. Outer darkness. Jude in his epistle
at verse 13 speaks of the blackness of darkness forever. That's how
it's described. The devils there in Jude are
said to be reserved in everlasting chains under darkness. Darkness then is associated with
the devils. Darkness is associated with the
realm of the devils. We read of that terrible plague
that God visited upon the Egyptians. The ninth of those ten plagues,
the final plague of course, was the destruction of all the firstborn
in the land of Egypt. How God dealt with those Egyptians. Pharaoh had ordered, remember,
in the earlier part of Exodus, that all those male babes were
to be destroyed, they were to be cast into the river, and all
the rivers of Egypt became bloody rivers. And when God begins to
deal with Pharaoh in the way of judgments and sends upon him
those various plagues, remember the first plague? All of the
water in Egypt is turned into blood. How God deals in kind. Pharaoh had made the Nile and
all its tributaries blood. And now all the water is literally
turned into blood. And then at the end, of course,
in that last plague, the destroying angel comes and all the firstborn
of the Egyptians are to be killed, just as Pharaoh had sought to
destroy those Hebrew babes. But we read there of that ninth
plague, and it was a darkness, it was a blackness that came
over the whole of that land. It was a non-natural phenomenon
that occurred when God sent such a judgment upon them. And it's
interesting to see how it's there referred to as a darkness that
they were able to feel. The Lord said unto Moses, Stretch
out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over
the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. The Margin says that the Hebrew
is literally that one may feel darkness. And Moses stretched forth his
hand toward heaven, and there was a thick darkness. in all
the land of Egypt three days. There it was for three days,
here we see that there is a darkness for three hours. Now again, with
regards to the plagues, if you turn to the 78th Psalm, you'll
see there at verse 44 and through to verse 51, we have reference
to the 10 plagues. The Psalmist, verse 44 following
then, makes specific reference to each of those plagues. But
there's no mention at all of the plague of darkness. But what
we do read there in Psalm 78 and verse 49 is how God sends
evil angels amongst them. And you'll see in the context
there as he's describing the various plagues that those evil
angels were clearly associated with the plague of darkness. Evil angels, that's fallen angels,
sinful angels, that's the demons. The darkness then that came was
in many ways so typical of the darkness of hell itself. And this darkness that we read
of here at Calvary, is it not representative to us of the condition
of the soul of the Lord Jesus Christ? What is Christ doing
here? Is he not experiencing that suffering
that must have been the portion of his people in hell forever? Of course, because of who he
is, he is able to satisfy God's justice. there in that period
of time that he hangs upon the cross, these three hours his
person is infinite, he is the eternal son of God and he can
satisfy divine justice but we who are but finite creatures
if we are to satisfy the demands of God in his holy law we must
endure an eternal suffering But what is Christ experiencing in
that brief period of time we might say, those few hours upon
the cross? Here we see his soul as it were
suffering those terrible torments that would be the lot of his
people for a never-ending eternity in hell. He felt these things. He felt abandonment in his own
soul. Christ has, as we read there
in Matthew 27, that great cry, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? He's suffering that punishment
that was due to the sins of his people. God tells us through
Isaiah, your iniquity, have separated between you and your God, and
your sins have hid His face from Him. And this is what Christ
is experiencing. When there is this great darkness
over the whole of the creation, oh what darkness there must be
in that Holy Soul of the Lord Jesus Christ, as He makes that
great sacrifice, as He bears in His own person that punishment,
that was due to the sins of his people. I say, friends, it is
a fearful darkness that we read of here. It is fearful primarily when
we think of it in that sense, the sufferings of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the soul of Christ, and that how that he must feel within
but fearful also when we see that it has an effect upon the
whole of creation. It is then fearful, but it is
also in the second place, I say, a darkness to be felt. That's what we read back in Exodus
chapter 10, is it not? And there at the end of verse
21, the plague was even darkness which may be phallus. Now that is a figure of speech
because really we don't feel the darkness. We perceive it of course by the
sense of sight. We don't feel it. It is a figure
of speech that is being used but it's an interesting and a
significant figure because it reminds us of the nature of this
darkness. This darkness which is felt,
it's a supernatural darkness. It's something above and beyond
natural things. It was about the 6th hour, we
read at verse 44, and there was a darkness over all the earth
until the 9th hour. Now this is more than an eclipse.
of the sun that's occurring, because this is something that
lasts for a period of three hours. An eclipse would not last, of
course, such a lengthy period of time. God is here, and what
is God doing? God is withdrawing the light. God himself is the source of
light, is he not? And we see that so clearly in
the scriptures, the Lord Jesus Christ who is God, himself who
is God, manifest in the flesh. Does he not make that great statement
in the 8th chapter of John, I am the light of the world. He that
followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the
light of life, he says. But it's one of those great I
am statements that Christ is making there as he comes to give
that fall and final revelation of God. He is the image of the
invisible God. He is Jehovah Jesus. He is indeed
the great I am. And we have those statements,
those I am statements throughout John's Gospel. And Christ declares
himself then the light of the world. God, I say, is the source
of light. We turn back to the creation
as we have it recorded in the scriptures, in that opening chapter
of the Bible, in Genesis chapter 1. We see what God creates on
each of those six days of creation. On the first day, Genesis 1 verse 3 God said let
there be light and there was light and God saw the light that
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 there we have
it you see God himself is the source of light because It's
not till later, is it? Verse 14 following, that we read
these words. 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 and for days and
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 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. And yet
on the first day, God says, let there be light, and there was
light. And yet we come to the fourth day, and here we have
God setting these two lights in the firmament, in the heavens.
How are we to understand these things? Well remember, as we
said in time past, there we see that those heavenly bodies are
but lightbearers. They're lightbearers. who is
the source of light. God is light and in him is no
darkness at all. God is able to give light even
though there be no light bearers in the heavens because God himself
is the one who is light. What we're dealing with there
in Genesis chapter 1 of course is the origin of all things,
the beginnings. the creation of the heavens and
the earth. And we see that God and God only is the giver of
light because he is the source of light. And foolish men in
those days of old, they might be moved to worship the sun and
the moon and the stars. We saw now that the children
of Israel were warned against such idolatrous ways. God is
to be worshipped. God is the source of light. And
here we have something that's quite supernatural because God
is at work. He withdraws the shining of the
sun. It was about the 6th hour. Now
what is the 6th hour? They counted the hours from 6am. The 6th hour is noon. High noon! And the sun at its zenith. And
yet at that very period there was a darkness over all the earth
until the ninth hour and the sun was darkened, it says. This
is the work of God, this is a mighty act of God. Or remember what
happened at the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are told,
are we not here, in Luke chapter 2 that there were In that same
country, the town of Bethlehem, there were shepherds keeping
watch over their flocks by night. But then the glory of the heavens
shone round about them. It was the darkness of night
and yet it was turned to the brightness of day, the glory
of the heavens. And those angels that came to
announce the birth of the Messiah that was the birth and now as
we come to the death of the Lord Jesus Christ at noon the day
is turned into midnight darkness the contrast you see between
his coming into the world and his departure from the world
It is, I say, a darkness, a remarkable darkness, because it is something
outside of nature. It is something quite supernatural
that we're reading off here. But also it is a felt darkness
in this sense that it is a spiritual darkness. As I've already intimated, what
we have here is a representation of what is transpiring in the
very soul of the Lord Jesus Christ. 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. The soul of the Lord Jesus Christ
as he suffers that punishment that was the just deserts of
his people as he hangs there as the great sin bearer he is
making his soul an offering for sin in the words of Isaiah 53
if we read with the margin there in verse 10 his soul shall make
an offering for sin oh the mystery of it all you see the mystery
of that cry that he makes, as he feels the darkness in his
own soul, as he feels himself to be so utterly abandoned. My
God, my God, he says, why hast thou forsaken me? It is a mystery, that cry of
dereliction, because we know that God is One, Hero Israel,
the Lord our God, is one Lord. God is undivided. And it is not possible to divide
God, He is indivisible. Oh yes, He is revealed to us
in scripture as three persons, quite clearly. He is God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. But not three
Gods. Three persons. and three persons
in one undivided Godhead. And here we see God the Son,
the eternal Son of the eternal Father. I and my Father are one,
he says. And yet, how is it, how is it
that he can be forsaken as he cries out in the agonies of his
soul There is a mystery, friends, and we cannot really begin to
explain it. How can we fathom the depths
of these things? Clearly the Lord Jesus Christ
felt such a darkness in his soul. It was a real cry that he made
because of what he was feeling in the very depths of his being. a real separation from God. That
is the consequences of man's sin, man's rebellion against
God. He brings separation, does he? We see it there in the garden
of Eden. The man and the woman are thrust
out of the garden. There's a breach there, there's
a breaking of fellowship with God. This is what sin does. And
that is, in many ways, the principle part of the sufferings of hell.
If God has made man for himself, that he might know God, that
he might enjoy God, how awful it is to be separated forever
from that One that man was created in the image and after the likeness
of. These are the things that the Lord Jesus Christ suffers
it. And this darkness, I say, represents
to us all that is transpiring in that Holy Soul of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Those words, of course, that
He cries in Matthew 27, 46, are the words that we just sang in
the Metrical Psalm. They're the only words, are they
not, of the 22nd Psalm. My God, My God, why hast thou
forsaken birth? And we sang from the opening
part of the psalm and we sang from the concluding part of that
same psalm. And it's interesting, is it not,
that there, right at the end of the psalm, we have those words,
He hath done this. And the word this, in the authorised
version, as you know, appears in italics. In other words, the
significance is that it's been introduced by the translators.
Literally, the Hebrew simply says, he has done. Or it could
be rendered, it is finished. It is finished. And that is the cry also, of
course, that Christ makes from the cross. there in John 19 and
verse 13, it is finished. He doesn't just make reference
into the opening words of Psalm 22 in that awful cry when he
feels so utterly forsaken the darkness of his soul, he also
utters those words, he makes that cry from the end of the
psalm. And we can rightly say that the whole of that psalm
from beginning to end is being accomplished in the soul of the
Lord Jesus Christ there upon the cross as he suffers for these
three hours. Oh, let us read and meditate
then upon the content of that blessed psalm as it describes
to us something of the awful sufferings of the soul of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He experienced all the darkness that belongs to the sins of his
people he experienced you see all that darkness and blackness
of the law remember what we are told concerning the giving of
the Lord of God there is in Deuteronomy there on the borders of the promised
land after the 40 years of wilderness wanderings are about to enter
into the possession of that land that good land. And Moses begins
to recount things to them. He is going to remind them of
the Ten Commandments in chapter 5. But we read from the previous
chapter where he reminds them of that great day. Verse 10, especially the day
that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb. When the
Lord said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will
make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all
the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they
may teach their children. And then verse 13, He declared
unto you His covenant, the ten words, the ten commandments,
the covenant that God made with Israel. But verse 11, Moses reminds
them, he came near and stood under the mountain, and the mountain
burned with fire unto the midst of heaven with darkness, clouds,
and thick darkness. Here is the giving of the Lord
of God. And that Lord is given with darkness, clouds, and thick
darkness. And the Lord Jesus Christ, you
see, He is experiencing all the horror of that law in his transgressions. He was made of a woman, he was
made under the law to redeem them that were under the law.
All whatsoever things the law saith, it saith to them who are
under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world
become guilty before God. That's the ministry of the law,
is it not? When the Lord comes, how a man is made to feel what
he is as the sin of the darkness of his sin as well as the deadness
of his sin. How by nature our very minds,
you see, are enveloped in all that darkness because of our
sin. And here is the Lord Jesus Christ,
He is experiencing the blackness of the broken Lord of God, the
darkness. And He is fulfilling it. and
he is satisfying it. Isn't that the significance then
of what is associated with this darkness? The sun was darkened,
we are told, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. All the Lord Jesus Christ has
satisfied the holy law of God and now he has made that way
of entrance, that way of access into the very presence of God,
into that light which is God. God is light. and in him is no
darkness at all. And the Lord Jesus Christ by
satisfying God's holy law has made a way of entrance. Paul speaks of these things of
course when he writes in the epistle to the Hebrews. And there
in Hebrews chapter 9 he reminds them of that first covenant and
the ordinances of the divine service associated with the tabernacle
and then with the temple. And it says there in Hebrews
9 verse 3, after the second vial of the tabernacle which is called
the holiest of all, the second vial, this is that vial that
was rented to, that vial that gives access into the holy of
holies. Under the Old Testament We know
that none were permitted to go beyond that vial except the High
Priest. Again there at verse 7 in Hebrews
9 into the 2nd went 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 the high priest that
could enter and he would enter on the day of atonement Yom Kippur
and he must go with blood and he must sprinkle the blood before
the mercy seat and upon the mercy seat. But here you see the veil
of the temple we are told was rent in the midst. Now what is
the significance? Well again Paul brings it out
so plainly in Hebrews there in chapter 10
at verse 19 he says, having therefore brethren boldness to enter into
the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living wine 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 ought to know what it is to draw near in that
fashion with a true heart in full assurance of faith we might feel something of the
awful deadness of sin, you might feel that. And you want that
life that comes only from God, and you feel not only the deadness
of your natural condition, but you feel also the darkness. Having the understanding darkened,
we read of those Gentiles, being alienated from the life of God
through the ignorance that is in them. because of the blindness
or the hardness of their hearts. That's our natural condition.
And when God takes the sinner in hand, does he not make him
feel what he is by nature? The understanding is dark and
we're so ignorant. We know nothing, really. But
God will make us to feel, you see, what we are. To feel the
deadness of our soul. To learn that awful doctrine
of our total depravity, our utter inability. We can do nothing
of ourselves, nothing for ourselves. But not only the deadness of
our sin, the darkness of it also. And all when these things are
felt, what are we to do? God grant us that grace to be
looking to this one. Even the Lord Jesus Christ. He
who could say, I am the light of the world. He that followeth
me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
Why he is born, that punishment that was due to the sins of his
people. He has made that one great sacrifice. He has known all the awful darkness
of the punishment of sin. He's felt it in his own soul.
It's represented to us here in these verses that we consider
this morning 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 mist he has made
that way of access for sinners or that we might be those friends
who would desire then to come to God by and in and through
him to be looking on to Jesus or God grant that you might be
favoured to know such a sight, to see Him who is truly the light
of the world. The God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness might shine in your hearts to give
that light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Amen. We sing as our concluding hymn
this morning, hymn number 748, and the tune is Mary's in 366. In darkness fall I went astray
and wandered from the gospel way, and since the Saviour gave
me sight, I cannot see without His light. Hymn number 748. Thank you.