I got it from Matthew 27. Many mysterious and miraculous
things took place at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
there is none more mysterious or more miraculous than the fact
that the God-man died. Now, what do I mean by that?
I mean, he died. Now, he was in absolute sovereign
control when he died. There was no man who took his
life from him. He voluntarily laid his life down for his sheep. Death couldn't come take him
until he gave death permission. But still, the God-man died. Now, that's a great mystery.
I wouldn't even pretend to begin to understand that. The God-man
died. But the scripture gives us some insight of some of the
miracles that took place directly after the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ. I want to look at one of those real quick. Look here.
Look at Matthew 27. Look at verse 50. Jesus, when he had cried again
with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And behold, the veil
on the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. And the earth did quake, and
the rocks rent. And the graves were opened, and
many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of
the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city,
and appeared unto many." Now this is a mysterious and miraculous
sight. The God-man dies. Here's the
first thing that happens, the earthquakes. in disgust at the
murder of her creator, the earthquakes. And rocks are rent in half. You
know what it means? It means mountains were torn in half. Literally
torn in half. Have you seen a strong man tear a phone book in half?
Imagine a mountain being torn in half. That's what happened.
Then this thing happens. These dead saints, upon the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ, he was raised again. His saints
were raised again in him. Their graves were opened. The
death of the Lord Jesus Christ opened the grave. And the flesh
of these dead saints actually came back to the bones, and these
people who had been dead, maybe for a very long time, actually
rose up again, and walked out, and spoke to many people. Can
you imagine seeing that? Now that's amazing, and that's
miraculous, isn't it? But out of all these four miracles,
there is only one that is mentioned by Matthew, Mark, and Luke. One
of the four. And that is the renting of the
temple veil in twain, from the top to the bottom. And the fact
that it is mentioned that many times should draw our interest.
This is a very special miracle. And I think there's a lot we
can learn here. So here's my questions for you today. Two
questions. What, and more importantly, who
does this veil represent? And what is the significance
of the renting this temple veil from the top to the bottom upon
the death of Lord Jesus Christ? What does that mean? What does
that mean to every believer? We're going to answer that question.
So, first, let's talk about this. What was it? What is this veil
in the temple? It's a large curtain that hung
in the temple, the Temple of Jerusalem, and it separated the
holy place from the Holy of Holies. Now, it's probably beneficial
that we talk about the temple for a second so everybody gets
a context. The exact dimensions of the Temple
of Jerusalem, I'm not even going to try to speculate on what they
were. What we know is it would have been similar to the tabernacle.
tabernacle, which dimensions were given to Moses. You remember
the children of Israel, everywhere they went, they would carry this
portable temple with them, the tabernacle, and everywhere they
camped, they would erect it. And the Lord gave specific dimensions
as to how it was supposed to be built. And so, let's walk
through it real quick. It was a portable compound. It
had a fence going around it, right? A fence going around the
compound, and there was one gate, one gate that led you inside
the compound, the eastern gate. Everything having to do with
this tabernacle is all a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. There
is one way to God. There is one way of the Father,
and that's the Eastern Gate, the rising of the sun, the Lord
Jesus Christ. You come into the main courtyard area there. First
thing you come to is an altar, the brazen altar. This is the
place of sacrifice. Christ, our sacrifice, our justification. Next thing you come to is the
brazen labor. It's a wash basin, a bronze wash basin. Christ,
our cleansing, our sanctification. Then you come to the actual building.
Now this building is separated into two rooms. The Holy Place
and the Holy of Holies. You walk into the Holy Place.
This is where the priests would do their priestly duties. This
place was very, very dark. Completely dark, as a matter
of fact. And there was only one source of light in the tabernacle,
in the Holy Place, and that was the golden candlestick. Christ,
our light. The light of how God can be just
and justify sinners. That's it. Christ, our light.
Golden candlestick. Then, off to the side, the table
of showbread. Christ our sustenance. What we feed on every single
day. Christ. And then after that, the altar of incense. This is
where the priest would offer incense. The smoke would go up. And that's
typical of the intercessory prayers of the Lord Jesus Christ. His
mediatorship. Our great high priest. It all
points to Christ. Everything in the tabernacle pointed to
Christ. Past that, the second room, the Holy of Holies. In
there we got the Ark of the Covenant. Inside that there's Aaron's pot
of manna. I'm sorry, but the pot of manna that children of
Israel ate in the wilderness. Aaron's robbed the broken tables
of the wall. Above the ark you had the mercy
seat. This is a golden lid with the
cherubims that faced inward. And the Lord said, that's where
I dwell, that's where I meet, that's where I commune and command
my people from. That's where the Lord actually
dwelled and met with his people, was above that mercy seat. And
what separated the holy place from the holy of holies was this
veil, this large Now, here's what's interesting
about this. In the Holy of Holies, no one
could go back there. No man could enter into the presence
of God back there, except for one man, and one time a year,
and that was the Great High Priest. One time a year on the Day of
Atonement, the Great High Priest could go underneath that curtain,
and he would go and he'd sprinkle blood. And the scriptures are
very clear, he had to bring blood. He entered not without blood.
He had to offer a sacrifice for himself and for the people. And
he'd bring that blood inside the Holy of Holies. He did this
one time, once a year, and that was it. And it wasn't without
blood. He had to have blood or he'd be killed. This was serious
business. If he messed up anything, if he didn't do everything according
to the Lord prescribed it, this man would be killed. You can't
just walk in the presence of God. You'll be killed. Now, the
veil. What was it? And who is it? Here's what I want you to do.
Turn to Exodus 26 and look at verse 31. While you're turning there, I
want you to try to imagine this veil in your head. And I want
you to consider for a moment that this veil, it hung suspended
between heaven and earth. There at home, suspended between
heaven and earth. Just as the Lord Jesus Christ
hung on the cross, suspended between heaven and earth. When
we're looking at the veil, we're looking at Christ. Just like
everything else in the tabernacle, this veil points to Christ, first
and foremost. In Exodus 26 here, verse 31, we get a description
of the veil, and it's a description of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
thou shalt make a veil of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and
fine twine linen of cunning work, with cherubims shall it be made. Now, you look at the top of the
veil. First color you come to is blue.
Blue. It's the color of heaven. It's
the color of deity. It is the color of God. And this
is what every believer sees, first and foremost, when he sees
Jesus Christ hanging on that cross. I see my God. Now, Colossians 2.9, pour in
hymn. Twelfth, all the fullness of
the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him. Jesus Christ
is God, and that point cannot be overstated. Who is He? What
are His attributes? Well, He is omnipotent. He is
all-powerful. He has all power. Wherever He
wills, it comes to pass because He has the power to make His
will come to pass. He is all-powerful. Now think of this. When the Lord
hung on that cross, the devil thought, I finally beat Him.
There he is. Everybody's turned against him.
They're all mocking him. They're putting him to death. I finally beat him.
I'm more powerful. And it was in that act, that
act of dying on that cross, that the devil was defeated. He is
all powerful hanging on that cross. He's omniscient. That
means he's all wise. He's all knowing. He's never
learned anything. And he's not waiting around to find out what's
going to happen and what men are going to do. He knows everything. He's never learned anything.
He's omnipresent. He hung on the cross, and yet
He was everywhere, all at once. This is God we're talking about,
folks. He is immutable. That means He's incapable of
change. For I am the Lord, I change not,
therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. He's eternal. He is absolutely uncreated. He
has never had a beginning, and He will never have an end. Now,
I went through some of the attributes of the Lord Jesus Christ, but
there's three I want to speak of particularly. First, the God
who is love. Not that his character fits the
definition of love. This is the God that is love. Now what does that mean? John
15, 13 says, greater love hath no man than this, that a man
lay down his life for his friends. This is the very love of the
Lord Jesus Christ for his people that he was willing voluntarily
and willingly dying on that cross for His people. Now, who are
His people? What name do we answer to? Elect? That's a good word, isn't it?
Let me answer that word. What's a better word? That we
all answer to? I'll throw my hand up in the
air. Sinner. That's the name we answer to. Sinner. Every believer
owns that title. We're sinners. Now, I want to
show you something. Turn, if you would, to Luke 6. Look at verse 32. Luke 6 verse 32. For if you love
them which love you, what thank have you? For sinners also love
those that love them. And if you do good to them which
do good to you, what thank have you? For sinners also do even
the same. And if you lend to them of whom
you hope to receive, what thank have you? For sinners also lend
to sinners to receive as much as again. But lovely, love ye
your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again.
And your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children
of the highest. For he is kind unto the unthankful, and to the
evil. Now folks, I don't know love
like this. I've never experienced, I've
never loved, as far as I know, anyone who's hated me. And I've
never loved one of my enemies. I never have. This man did. He loved those that were evil. He loved those who by nature
hated him. And that is a love that I can't
even begin to grasp. Yes, I can understand a man dying
for his friend if he loved it. I can imagine Levi dying for
Christine. I can imagine a man dying for his children. Imagine
dying for a man who hates you. Imagine dying for a man who murdered
your son. Anybody here do that? This is
love. This is the love of Christ right
here. That when we were sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.
God who is love. He is the God of absolute holiness
and absolute justice. Now this is often said and it
bears repeating. The Father is so incredibly holy
and so incredibly just that when he found sin on his only begotten
son, he would not spare him. He will not spare him. That is
the character of God. He will not spare sin. He will not spare
any man whose sin is found on. And that is amazing, but think
about this. The Lord said, I and my father are one. If you're
looking at Jesus Christ, you're looking at the Father. They're
one. And this is an amazing thought. When he found sin on himself,
he would not spare himself. This was God doing business with
God. Now what are the chances that
he's going to sweep somebody else's sins under the carpet
and not remember them? Not a chance. If there's anyone
I'm willing to make an exception for, that I'm willing to defend
and sweep something under the carpet for, it's me. It's me. Always looking out for me. But
I'll tell you what, this man, when he found sin on himself,
he would not spare himself. He demands holiness. And he is
a God of mercy. Mercy that Once again, I don't
understand. From the cross, he cried, Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do. He prayed for some
of his murderers. Some. He didn't pray for every
man without exception. He did not pray for all his murderers.
He prayed for some. But he has this power with his
Father, that everyone he prayed for, the Father forgave. He has
that power with his father that everyone he prayed for his father
forgave. Now, if he was praying for every
man without exception, you know what would happen? Every man
without exception would be saved. He prayed for some of his murderers
as mercy folks. Now, remember, you're looking
at the veil. We saw blue. You come to the
center of the veil. Now you're looking at the color purple.
Purple. This is the color of royalty. This is the color of the king.
This is the second thing every believer sees when he sees Jesus
Christ hanging on that cross. I see my King. I see the Sovereign. Now here's the truth of the matter,
as plainly as I can lay it out. You and I sit in the hands of
the Sovereign God, and He can do whatever He wants with us,
whatever He wills, and He has the power to make His will come
to pass. He can save us, or He can damn us, and it is right,
it is just, and it is fair. Whatever He does, He is the King,
He is the Sovereign, and He is in absolute control. Now, what
is the natural man's response to the kingship of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We don't have to go any further
than the cross to find this out. Look at John 19 and look at verse
19. John 19 and look at verse 19. And Pilate wrote a title and
put it on the cross. And the writing was, Jesus of
Nazareth The King of the Jews. This title then read many of
the Jews for the place where Jesus was crucified was not in
the city. And it was written in Hebrew and Greek and Latin. Now, he's the king of the Jews,
symbolic of him being the king of his people in a loving and
effectually saving way. But he's the king. He's the sovereign
over everybody. It was written in three languages
in Hebrew and in Greek and in Latin. Those were the predominant
languages of the day. First, to the Hebrew, the language
of the religious person of the day. What does the sign say? He's your king. He is the sovereign. He is the one you're accountable
to. It was written in Greek. It was the common language, the
language of the apathetic. I don't care anything about God.
I'm going to go along living my life any way I want. Look
at the sign. He is the king. He is the one
you are accountable to. It was written in Latin. That
was the language of the Romans. The language of the government.
The language of those who believed that they ruled. Look at the
sign. Jesus of Nazareth, the King. You are accountable to him. Now,
how does the natural man feel about that? About the sovereignty
of God? Look at verse 21. Then said the
chief priest of the Jews to Pilate, write not the king of the Jews,
but that he said, I am king of the Jews. Take that down. I don't
like that. I'm comfortable with my God,
the one that fits in my pocket here, my good luck charm. I'm
very comfortable with him. I can pull him out anytime I
want. I can make him do whatever I tell him to do. I pull him
out. I rub him like a genie in a bottle and he comes out and
he solves my problems for me, but he doesn't make a move until
I let him make that move. You're saying this man's the
king? Take that down. I don't like that. Men talk about,
yeah, do you love God? Sure I love God, absolutely.
They love the God of their imagination, the one they control. But this
sovereign, this king, the natural man hates him. And he will always
kick and fight against him. Look at this. Look at verse 22. Where did it get them? Pilate
answered, what I have written, I have written. You can kick
and fight against the sovereignty of God all you want. You can
hate Him and hate His sovereignty all you want. And you know what
the sign says? Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews, He's sovereign
over that too. Now here's my point in all this. The natural man hates God. He
detests the sovereignty of God. For the believer, my only hope
is that God is sovereign. My only hope that I am in His
sovereign hands and that His will overrides my will. And that
He is all-powerful. Because that means if He wills
my salvation, that means I must be saved. That means I can't
mess it up. My only hope is electing grace. That He chose me before
the foundations of the world were ever built. Because I know
this, I never would have chose Him. The only place the believer
ever feels comfortable is in the hands of the Sovereign God. Now, looking at the veil. The last color you come to at
the bottom here, scarlet. Scarlet. That is the color red.
And this is the third thing every believer sees when he sees Jesus
Christ hanging on that cross. I see the shed blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and in that I see all my redemption. Now, the people
that were there, you and me, let's get that out first and
foremost, you and me. This is what we said. They mention his
blood, and I want you to hear what they have to say about him.
Turn back to Matthew 27. Look what they have to say. Look in verse 22. Pilate saith unto them, What
shall I do then with Jesus, which is called Christ? They all say
unto him, Let him be crucified. And the governor said, Why, what
evil hath he done? But they cried out the more,
saying, Let him be crucified. When Pilate saw that he could
prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water
and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent
of the blood of this just person. See you to it. Then answered
all the people, including you and me by nature, all the people
and said, His blood be on us and on our children. Now, what
did they mean? And at this We know he's innocent.
We don't care. We will not have this man to
reign over us. Put him to death, and you charge to our account.
His blood's on us. His blood's on our children.
We don't care. We want him gone. That's what they meant. This
statement, his blood be on us and our children, this is owned
by the believer in two respects. Two respects. Number one, this
is my confession of guilt. My confession of guilt. His blood
is on me, and it's on my children. What do I mean by that? Adam
was in the garden. What's Adam? He's in need of
every fruit of every tree here, except the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. The day you eat thereof you shall surely
die. Adam disobeys God. He dies. He dies spiritually.
And Adam passes on that fallen, evil, sinful nature to all his
children. Right down to me. Right down
to you. And we pass that down to our children. And the full
sinful potential of that nature is seen at the cross. The one
time holiness walked along this earth, what did we do? We nailed him to a pole, we shoved
a spear in his side and we mocked him as he bled and he died. And
that's us. That's our nature. And it would
be incorrect to say if we were there, we would have done the
exact same thing. We were there. It's the same
nature. And that's my confession of guilt.
Yeah, we're sinners. We do bad things and we say bad
things. The greater issue is this. We murdered the Son of
God. Our nature is that to hate God.
That's why men and women go to hell. Because they make war against
their Creator. That's my confession of guilt.
His blood is on us. It's on my children. It's the
same nature. But this is also all my hope. That His blood would
be on me. And it would be on my children. Now, what do I mean by that?
Y'all remember the story of Rahab the harlot. Remember that story
of Joshua? He's going to go up to Jericho.
Jericho is a walled city. A walled city. He's going to
go up and the Lord says, you're going to take this city. And
so Joshua goes up and he sends two spies into Jericho. And they
go up to Rahab the harlot. Her house sits on a wall. It's
got a window that looks out on the wall. And they go in there.
She says, I know who you are. I know that the Lord's people
are here, that He's going to give them the victory. Our hearts
have melted inside of us. We're terrified of you. We know
that your God is Lord over all. We know that. And then the king
of Jericho comes, and he says, hey, we know there's some spies
here. Give them to us. She hides them. She hides them.
And then once the king is gone, he goes to pursue after them.
She brings them back out. She says, okay, I'm going to
let you down out of this window with a scarlet cord. scarlet
cord, a red cord that was in her apartment. I'm gonna let
you down here, but here's the thing. Here's all I'm asking. Is that when
you come through here, when you kill everybody and wipe everything
out, that you would spare me, my mother, my father, and all
my brethren. I said, okay. Okay, well, we'll
make this covenant with you. Absolutely. But here's the deal.
Here's what you do. You take this scarlet cord, this
red cord that you let us out this window by, and you bind
it in the window. in the window there, and you
get your mother, and your father, and your brother, and you put
them inside that apartment, and when we come through, we'll spare
you because we see the scarlet cord. It's just like the Passover. It's the same message over and
over and over. Now if you are outside the apartment,
outside the house, with a scarlet cord, your blood's on you. That's
on you. Inside the house with the scarlet
cord in the window was the only place of safety in Jericho And
you bring your mother and your father and all your siblings
and they'll be safe inside that house. That's what they promised
them. And you know what? They saved Rahab, the harlot
and all her house alive because they saw the scarlet cord. That's
the blood of Christ. A scarlet cord. It's the same
thing as the Passover. There's one place of safety.
It's in Christ. Because all the Father's looking
for is one thing and that's blood. The sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the only thing that appeases
him. That's what he's looking for, the scarlet cord in the
window. In my prayer, my only hope in this world, of all the
hopes I have, the only thing I've got, that his blood will
be on me and will be on my children. Go back to Exodus 26 and look
at verse 31. I want to read the description
again. And now shall make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet
and fine twine linen of cunning work with cherubim shall it be
made. This was made of fine twined
linen. What does that speak of? Fine
linen, clean and right. Speaks of the righteousness,
the purity and the holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ. He never
sinned. He never had a sinful thought. He never had a sinful
action. He lived on this earth his entire life. and absolute
purity and absolute holiness. Now, it says it's twined. Fine, twined linen. So that speaks
of the strength of the fabric. That they took the fibers and
they interlaced them exceptionally tight and the fabric was exceptionally
strong. Now, I was thinking about this. There's a fabric in our
day that's actually very similar. You may have heard of it. It's
Kevlar. They make it into fabric. You know what they do? They interweave
those Kevlar fabrics tightly. You know what it's used for?
To stop bullets. What's my point? It's this. The righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ is so incredibly strong that when the
law looked him over, they couldn't shoot any holes in him. It's
perfect and absolute perfect righteousness. The law looked
him over and said, finally, we found a righteous man. This is
it. He kept the law, every jot and every tittle his entire life.
He lived a perfect life and he never sinned. Now, look at this. He was made of cunning work.
cunning work now this at least in part speaks of the purposeful
and the wise work of the Lord Jesus Christ what's interesting
here this word cunning this is translated four times in the
Old Testament into the word impute impute and truly the work of
the Lord Jesus Christ is a work of imputation imputation now
I'll start off with this This thing of imputation is a great
mystery. I wouldn't even begin to tell you that I understand
it in any way. The little bit I have here, I
will share with you. But his work is a work of imputation.
This is a work that only the Lord has. It's an ability that
only the Lord has. He has the power to take my sins off of
me. Off of me. And put them in Christ. So much so that he really became
guilty of those sins. He never sinned. He never had
a sinful thought. He never had a sinful action. The Father lifted
my sins off of me and put them in Christ, so much so that they
became his sins, that he became guilty of them. Somebody says,
how real was that transference of sin? It was so real that the
Father, who is absolutely just and absolutely holy, turned his
back on him, forsook him, and killed him. That's how real that
transference was. But just as real, that perfect
righteousness, that righteousness that the law can't shoot holes
in, that really is my righteousness. It's the righteousness of every
believer. And the example we're given in the scripture of this
is the scapegoat. Remember the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement?
The high priest would go, he would take hold of the scapegoat,
he'd confess the sins and iniquities of the people of Israel all over
the scapegoat, and then a fit man would take that scapegoat
away into a land uninhabited, and it was gone, never to be
seen again. That's the picture. The Lord Jesus Christ bore our
sins in his body, and he took them away to a land uninhabited,
and they're gone. The price has been paid and those
sins are absolutely no more. They are so far gone that the
Father doesn't even remember them anymore. How could he not
remember them if they're not there? The sin debt really has
been paid. It's gone. Now I don't understand
how this thing of imputation works. I don't have to. I don't
know how it works. What I know is it worked. Any
man who the Lord died for That man must be saved, the very justice
of God the man. The last description, it says,
with cherubins shall it be made. Cherubins. Now, this is the part
where the type of the veil changes. It is first and foremost a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ, but with cherubins. So if you were
standing there and you were looking at the veil from the holy place,
you had cherubins staring back at you. Where's the first time
in the scripture we read about cherubins? It's at the garden. Adam disobeyed God. He was cast
out of the garden. And that one way into the garden,
the Lord put cherubims there and a flaming sword that twisted
every direction, keeping the way of the tree of life. And
when Adam looked back, he saw cherubims guarding that way.
That sign, your sins have separated you from God. And if you're standing
in the holy place and you're looking at that veil, that veil
is embroidered with cherubims, the constant reminder, you can't
come back here. You can't come into the presence
of God. Your sins have separated you from your God. And that's
the second type of the veil, is the separation. Our sins have
separated us from God. Now, what's the significance
of the veil being around? 2. Upon the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ, from the top to the bottom. This is the first
thing it signifies. It signifies first that the Old Testament
economy of worship, the priests, the sacrifices, the feast days,
all those things, they were done away with. Because the genuine
article had been realized. The Lord Jesus Christ, who is
the type Every type and picture points to him, and all the Old
Testament economy of worship was done away with because the
genuine article was there. So many lambs had been slain
in the past, they all pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ. So
many feasts were kept, they all pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ,
but he was here, he bled and died, he accomplished his work,
and now the Old Testament economy of worship was gone, it was done
away with. Now, what else does it mean? The rent veil shows that man's
religion is a sham. a sham. What do I mean by that?
What was the religion of the Jews up to this point? It was
salvation by works. The whole nation had fallen to
salvation by works. They had gone from simple faith
in Messiah that was to come, here with a belief. God finds
favor with me, the Lord finds favor with me because I kept
this feast, because I abstained from that which was unclean,
because I did no work on the Sabbath. I find favor with God
because I." They had all fallen into salvation by works. Now,
keep that in mind while I give this example. Imagine for a second
you're in the holy place and you're a priest. The day that
the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified. You're standing there, you're
attending your priestly duties, and all of a sudden this huge tapestry
rips from the top to the bottom and bursts open just like that.
What do you think those priests did? They ducked for cover, right? They went running out of there.
Why? Because no man's allowed back
there. No man can look on God and live. Everybody's ducking
for cover, hiding their eyes. We're all going to be killed.
That's the end of it. No one's allowed back there. And so finally,
you know, there's one guy in the corner, right? And he's sitting
there, he's covering his eyes. And after a while, he's like,
OK, I'm not dead yet. And this curiosity gets to the
best of him. So he gets up and he walks over and he looks through
that veil. And you know what he sees back
there in the Holy of Holies? Nothing. an empty room. It is exceptionally likely that
the Ark of the Covenant hadn't been in the temple for centuries. It was all a sham. They had all
just been going through the motions. They did not have the Ark. They
did not have the presence of God. They did not have His favor. He was not communing with them,
and He had not for a very long time. It was all a sham. And
that's what man's religion is. It's a sham. A sham. Come to God on the basis of my
work seeking acceptance. It's a sham religion. Now, on
that point, let's talk about this veil being rent from the
top to the bottom. What does that signify? It signifies
that the work of the removal of that separation between God
and his people, his elect, was 100% the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It was rent from the top, the
top, starting with the Lord. And the terror continued down
and it met his people where they were at, at the bottom. And it
was 100% the work of the Lord. Now, I want to give you this
few examples here. False religion will always tell
you in some way, shape, or form that in some way that veil still
exists. And it is your responsibility, at least in some small way, of
helping in renting that veil. I'll give you a few examples
here. It's always a bottom-up religion. I'll give you an example.
So, a man says, so here's what you have to do. You have to make
the appropriate choice for Jesus. You have to enact your free will.
You have to allow him to be your king. Make him the Lord of your
life. And that puts the very first tear in the bottom of the
veil there. And then the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ continues to tear up from there. And it all flies
open. And you have access to God. That's it. Mingling of grace
and works. Bottom-up religion. leads to
what? Sham. An empty room. No favor,
no communion with God. What about this? Man says, okay,
listen, you have to have the shed blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what puts the first little tear in the veil
there, at the bottom. But as that tear continues up, it won't
keep going unless you have some good works. You've got to bring
something to the table. You've got to bring something about
you that would be attractive to the Lord. A reason he'd show
mercy to you, particularly. And if you don't have that thing,
well, that tear's not going to continue up and that veil's going
to stay standing. Salvation by works, trying to
mingle grace and works. It's either all grace or it's
all works. What about this? A man says, listen, salvation
begins with the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. You have
to have his blood. And the tear continues on up.
But that tear won't really rip the veil in half unless you preserve
yourself. You got to keep yourself to the very end. That's on you.
Listen, you got to preserve yourself all the way to the end or that
veil won't rip in two. Shame leads to an empty room. No communion, no favor. But that's
not the way it is. That's not the truth. The truth
is the veil was rent from the top to the bottom. In a very
metaphoric sense, that terror began before the foundations
of the world were ever built. With the love of the Father for
his people, those he elected and chose in the Lord Jesus Christ
and predestinated him to be conformed to his image. And that terror
continued on down with the calling of those people, the call of
irresistible, invincible grace, the call from death to life.
Lazarus is the best example of that. Lazarus come forth. He
was a dead man. He couldn't. But when the Lord
called and gave him life, that's when he came forth. He gives
him life. The terror continued down with
the glorification of those people and keeping them all the way
to the end. And that veil rips wide open.
There is no more separation between the believer and his God. And
it is all 100% the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We didn't
contribute to it. We didn't earn it, and we don't
deserve it. And that's called grace. Now, the final meaning of the veil
being around. It means that for the elect, for the believer. Who's the believer? The man who
believes. He's looking to the Lord Jesus
Christ alone. He's got nowhere else to look. For him. there's
no more separation between you and your God. Now, what am I
to do? Turn to Hebrews 10, look at verse
19. Hebrews 10, look at verse 19.
Having therefore, brethren, boldness, 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. Come, and come with boldness. Boldness. Now, I want to make
sure I know what that word means. Because I want to make sure that
I haven't misinterpreted it. Because it says come with boldness,
and that's a very bold thing to do. To approach unto God with
boldness in Christ. What does that mean, boldness?
First thing it means is this, a fearless confidence, a fearless
confidence. Why can you be fearless? Why
can you be fearless coming to the presence of God? Because
in Christ, there is absolutely nothing to fear, because the
reason for fear has been removed. The separation, the sin that
separates the sinner from God for the believer has been removed.
It means a cheerful courage, a cheerful courage. Why can you
have a cheerful courage? Because the one you're coming
to is your father and you are his beloved child. And he's what
I thought about when I saw that word, the prodigal son. He wasted
his, his substance on riotous living. And he came back and
said, father, I don't, I don't deserve to, to be your son anymore.
Just make me a hired servant. And he couldn't even get the
words out. And his father comes out, he says, be quiet, be quiet.
Bring the best robe, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Put
it on, put it on. You take a ring, put it on his
finger. What's a ring? You notice the
ring, it doesn't have a beginning and it doesn't have an end. You
can't see a seam in it. It's eternal. It's the covenant of
grace. He's not under the law. He's under grace. Put the ring
on his finger. He's under grace. I remember my covenant, covenant
I made with my son. before the world began. He's
under grace, he's not under the law. Put shoes on his feet. He's got
a new walk. He's got a new history. His walk
is the walk of the Lord Jesus Christ. Finally this, this word boldness
means full assurance. I want to say this right. For
a long time I struggled with the difference between faith
and assurance. Now what is faith? Faith is this.
For the witchcalls, I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I
am not ashamed, for I know whom, whom I have believed. Our faith
is not in a doctrine. It's not in a set of facts or
circumstances. Our faith is in a man, a man,
the Lord Jesus Christ. I know whom I have believed and
I am persuaded that he is able, able. I'm persuaded that he is
able. I have confidence in his ability
to do what? To keep that which I have committed
unto him against that day. If the Lord ever reveals himself
to a man, he'll commit. He'll be terrified not to. Because
he won't have anywhere else to go. I've got no confidence in my
works. I've got no confidence in my experiences. I don't know
if they're real. I've got one thing. I've got Christ. That's
it. And I am persuaded that he is
able. Think about this for a second. After the Lord was crucified,
Peter had denied the Lord three times. If you would have walked
up to Peter and said, Peter, do you think you're really an
apostle? Probably not. Peter, do you think
you're elect? Probably not. Peter, do you believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God? with all my heart. Peter, do you believe
that everyone he was praying for on that cross, that he really
did accomplish their salvation, and they must be saved? With
all my heart. That's faith. Faith has nothing
to do with what you believe about yourself. Faith has everything
to do with what you believe about Him. I am persuaded that He is
able. He is able. It is confidence
in His ability. Oftentimes, and you know, looking
at it from that respect, I'll struggle with that. I know he's
absolutely able. What I struggle with is, is he
willing? Is he willing to do that for me? Turn to the scripture,
Hebrews 10, 22. Let us draw near with a true
heart in full assurance of faith. That word of speaks of origin.
Where does assurance come from? It comes from faith. Folks, it's
very simple. You know whom you have belief.
My confidence is a man, the man Christ Jesus. And I'm persuaded
that he's able, he's able to save me with absolutely no help
from me to the tune of his own honor and his own glory. And
you know what? Any man who has that faith, that confidence,
his ability, he can have assurance because he did it for you. If you're given that faith, it's
for one reason, because you are an elect child of God. You are
loved by God, and that is not presumption. That's the truth. I really enjoyed being here with
you. I'm going to get down now.