I want you to turn with me to
Isaiah chapter 63. Isaiah 63. We'll look at a couple
of verses here. Then we'll go over to Exodus
chapter 26. Isaiah 63. And then to Exodus 26. Verse 1, Who is this that cometh from Edom with dyed
garments from Basra? Who is this that is glorious
in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness,
mighty to save. Well, why are you red in your
apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine
vat? Who is this, and what are these garments that
he wears? This is Jesus Christ, our Savior. And his garments are his glorious
character and works. Look over at Exodus 26 with me. And this glorious one and his
glorious garments are wonderfully and omnisciently, or all wisely
and savingly illustrated in the coverings of this tabernacle
that we're going to look at tonight. Yet here are five characteristics
or aspects of his person and his work, and they are depicted
by these coverings in this tabernacle. Let's look at the first one.
We'll get right into the coverings. Verse 1 of Exodus 26. Moreover,
this is the Lord speaking unto Moses, thou shalt make the tabernacle
with ten curtains of fine twined linen, white linen, pristine
white cloth, linen, and blue and purple and scarlet woven
into this fabric with cherubims or seams of cherubims, of cunning
work, the work of a cunning workman, embroiderer, thou shalt make
them." This first covering of this tabernacle, we're going
to start from the inside out and look at it. This first covering
was of ten curtains woven together, ten white linen curtains with
this embroiderer. on it, of cherubims and so forth,
of blue and purple and scarlet thread. And this embroidery on
this white linen covering were pictures of cherubims on the
inside. Now, this was made wrongly. This doesn't have cherubims on
it. But on the first covering of that tabernacle, the inside
covering, was this white linen covering with these blue and
purple and red embroidery of cherubim or angelic beings, supernatural
beings. And all of this though, and this
is inappropriate too because you couldn't see on the other
side of this fabric, you couldn't see the weaving of it. You could
only see it on the inside. The only way you could see this
work of embroidery was on the inside, the naked eye, the casual
onlooker, and that's the way this tabernacle was. The casual onlooker didn't even
see the first covering at all, the white linen covering at all,
the casual onlooker. So there was nothing particularly
glorious about that tabernacle, and it looked very plain from
the outside. But you had to get on the inside of it to see this
gloriously wrought or cunningly made, embroidered, white linen
covering. And this is a picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ in His holiness, in His righteousness, and His
perfect character is only seen from within. When we see Him,
the Scripture says, there's no beauty that we should desire
Him. There's no comeliness in Him,
no beauty that we should desire Him. We've got to be within Him. We've got to be in Christ by
faith in order to see His beauty and His glory and His majesty. We've got to be within the veil. We must go within this first
veil. and go inside and look within
to behold so great a salvation, so wondrously wrought a work. It must be in Christ by faith. Now, these materials of this
first covering were typical of many things concerning Christ.
As I said, the fine white linen, pristine white beautiful cloth,
was the holiness and the righteousness of Christ. This depicts the spotless
Lamb of God, Him in His perfection, the perfections of His character,
His holy character. And it was fine twine, do you
see that? Fine twine, wonderfully wrought
by the hand of God Himself. That's what the angels said when
they heralded His birth. They didn't know what to make
of this finely twined a wonderfully wrought creature that was in
the belly of this woman. And all they could say about
it was, it's a holy thing, never been seen before. And it's on
the inside, soon to be revealed. This holy thing, fine twine,
curiously wrought by God himself. And there were ten curtains.
This first covering on the inside was made of ten curtains that
were sewn together. And I'm not certain exactly what
the number 10 depicts or represents, although it does—I went over
to Galatians chapter 5, and there were nine fruits of the Spirit.
If you want to include his Godhead with all of those characteristics,
that'd be 10. This talks of the multi-faceted character of our
Lord. All of these things that He is—wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, redemption, gentleness, goodness,
meekness, all of these things are in Him. There's much more
than ten. Many more characteristics than
just ten. They're infinite in His glory, effectiveness, and
character. Infinite. And this embroidered work, this
embroidered—I can't even say that right now. One of these
things that's an embroidered work. On the inside, it was a,
like I said, a blue and scarlet and purple. And the blue, blue
in the scriptures generally represents divinity. The sky is blue. It's where God dwells in the
heavens. And that represents divinity. Okay, red is scarlet. That represents redemption, the
manhood. of Christ, redemption, the man
that shed his blood, the God-man. Now, if you mix blue and red—one
of you artists—if you mix blue and red, what do you get? Purple. God became a man and shed his
precious blood, and by virtue of that sacrifice and that bloodshed,
we have the King, the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One,
our Redeemer, purple, his royalty. By virtue of that shed blood,
He earned the right to be called King, but he'd be called Lord.
To this end, Christ both lived and died, that he might be Lord
of the dead and the living. Blue, scarlet, and purple. Now, turn over to Exodus, I'm
sorry, Ezekiel chapter 10 with me. Ezekiel chapter 10. And as it said there in Exodus
26, this embroidery work was of cherubims. Now, we don't know
much about these cherubims, but in Ezekiel, a couple of times,
in Ezekiel chapter 1 and chapter 10, then over in Revelation chapter
4, it describes these cherubims, these angelic or spiritual beings,
these celestial beings. And here's a description of these
cherubims. Look at it with me. This is typical. This is good. Ezekiel saw these creatures,
verse 20, and this is the living creature that I saw, Ezekiel
10, 20. This is the living creature that
I saw under the God of Israel by the river Chebar, and I knew
that they were the cherubims. Now, this same depiction, this
same description is told in chapter 1, and it's told over in Revelation
chapter 4, too, the very same likeness. of these cherubim.
He said, verse 21, every one of these cherubims had four faces
apiece, and every one four wings, and the likeness of the hands
of a man was under their wings. And here's the likeness of these
cherubims back in verse 14. Now, we're going to have to go
over to chapter 1, see it? Chapter 1, Ezekiel chapter 1. There were four cherubims with
four likenesses. Verse 10, Ezekiel 1 verse 10,
and the likenesses of their faces, the four of them had a face of
a man and a face of a lion, and the four had the face of an ox.
and the face of an eagle with his cherubim. Now, this is typical
of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. The face of a man, we see the
humanity of Christ. The face of a lion, that's his—the
lion's called the king of the jungle, right? That's his kingship,
Christ our king. The face of an ox, the ox is
always used for sacrifice. That's the face of the Redeemer,
the Savior. And the face of an eagle, The
eagle is known for his omniscient, all-seeing eye. That's the ever-present,
all-seeing God over all. Okay, and all of this is only
seen from within. The only way you could see this,
this glorious character, this glorious depiction of his inner
covering, was to be on the inside. The only way you could see Christ
and all of his character is to be in Christ by faith. Okay,
back to Exodus 26. That's the first covering. Exodus
26. Look at verse 7 with me. This is the second covering.
He goes on to tell how these coverings will be attached and
so forth. And down in verse 7, he says,
And thou shalt make curtains, another covering, of goat's hair. Goat's hair to be a covering
upon the tabernacle. And there were 11 curtains of
this goat hair, this second covering. And most of the writers that
I read, most of what I looked at, said it was made of this,
you've heard of the Angora goat. Angora goat is a very silky,
white, beautiful, beautiful goat skin covering silky white hair. And that's the second covering.
Now look over at Leviticus chapter 16 with me. This is glorious.
Leviticus chapter 16. Goat's hair goat covering of
goat's skin for the second one. Now goats throughout the scripture
also used for. Sacrifices this type of sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ and this is one of the most beautiful
of all the types of sacrifice concerning Christ to goats. To goats made up this sacrifice
here in Leviticus 16 and you could rightly name the two goats,
if you wanted to. One, you could name him Justification.
You could name the other one Old Sanctification. These two
goats. Look at Leviticus 16, beginning with verse 5. And he
gives these orders to Aaron, the high priest, and he shall
take of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of
the goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burn offering.
And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the sin offering, which is
for himself, and make an atonement for himself and for his house.
And he shall take the two goats and present them before the Lord
at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And Aaron
shall cast lots upon the two goats," cast lots upon them,
one lot for the Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goats
upon which the Lord's lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering."
There was a lot cast upon these two goats to decide which one
would be killed and which one would be used as a scapegoat.
Lots were cast, and one goat was killed, and its blood shed. And I thought of this verse of
Scripture. when I saw that. Proverbs 16,
33 says, The lot is cast into the lap, and the whole disposing
thereof is of the Lord. And our lot has been cast in
the lap of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the whole disposing of our
salvation was laid upon him, wasn't it? He took care of it.
The lot, God cast a whole lot of people into the lap, into
the well-keeping, the safe-keeping. of the Lord himself and the disposing
of their sins and their salvation was of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Salvation. He was wounded. This first goat—look
at verse 10 with me. Verse 10. This first goat, the
goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented
alive before the Lord to make an atonement with him and let
him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness. But verse 20. But
this first goat You'll bring the goat, and Aaron shall kill
it before the Lord, and sprinkle of the blood of that first goat. Verse 15, he killed the goat
of the sin offering, that is, for the blood, and bring his
blood within the veil, and do with that blood, verse 15, as
he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon
the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat, and shall make an
atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of
the children of Israel, because of their transgression and all
their sins. And so shall he do for the tabernacle
of the congregation. And the Scripture says that he
was wounded, Christ was wounded for our transgression, bruised
for our iniquity. The chastisement of our peace
was laid upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. By the blood of that first goat,
by Christ's crucifixion upon that cross, he has made an atonement
for our very soul. And we'll speak more fully of
that blood atonement here in a minute on this third covenant.
But look down in the same chapter, verse 20. And this second goat,
the first goat was killed, and upon this second goat, when he
is made an end of reconciling the holy place and the tabernacle
of the congregation, And the author, he shall bring the live
goat, the second goat. And Aaron shall lay both his
hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all
the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions,
and all their sin, putting them upon the head of the goat. And
shall send this goat away by the hand of a fit man into the
wilderness. And the goat shall bear upon
him all their iniquity, under a land not inhabited. And he shall let go the goat
in the wilderness." The scapegoat. That speaks of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Because God has laid upon him
the iniquity of us all, the Scripture says. God has made him. He hath made him to be sin for
us who knew no sin. This innocent goat, Aaron the
high priest brought this innocent goat out here, and all of the
people came and stood before it. And the high priest laid
both of his hands upon that goat and confessed the sin of God's
people upon the head of that goat. And then a fit man was
called upon, an able man who could make the journey to deposit
this goat with all the sins of the people. A fit man would take
him out of the place uninhabited. where no man lived, where no
man had been, and deposited this goat. And this goat was never
to return again with the sins of God's people upon it. And
that's Christ. And he's the fit man, he's the
goat, he's the high priest. He's all these things. This fit
man, Christ was the man approved of God. And the hands of God,
both hands, you see that? It says when he lays both of
his hands upon this scapegoat, God Caused to meet upon Christ,
the scripture says, mercy and truth. God's salvation, God's
hand of mercy, yet God's hand of judgment was all seen in Christ,
met together on Him. God's righteousness, His holiness,
His judgment and peace kissed each other upon the head of our
scapegoat, Christ. And our sins have been judged
and our sins have been pardoned. all from the head of this scapegoat. And he was led out into the wilderness.
Christ went down into a grave where no man had laid before.
And where he went from there, we don't know. But the Scripture
says he took our sins away. He deposited them somewhere,
never to return again. God said—somebody said there's
only one thing God can't remember, and that is our sins. He said,
there are sins and there are iniquities I'll remember no more,
because God cast them behind his back. Christ's scapegoat
took our sins out in the wilderness, the sins of all believers, and
deposited them somewhere behind the back of God Almighty, never
to be seen or heard from again. And if God can't remember them
and God doesn't bring them up, why can't we forgive? And therefore
now no condemnation to those who have—and these two hands
could also be the hand of God and our hand, too. You know,
man killed to Christ, but it was pleased the Lord to bruise
him. Two didn't. And we must lay our
hand on the scapegoat. God's got his hand on it, and
we must come to him by faith, too. Lay our hand on this and
go between. And after this was done, look
at this. This is tremendous. I jumped two feet when I saw
this. Verse 23. And Aaron, after he's
done this, he'd come back into the tabernacle of the congregation,
after this scapegoat had been laid out there and deposited,
and put off the linen garments. take off his linen garments.
Are you looking at it? Verse 23. Every eye. Aaron will
put off his linen garments, which he put on when he went into the
holy place, and he'll leave them there. What does that remind you of?
When Christ went into that grave, and wherever he went, when he
came back, came out of that grave, he left those linen garments
laid in that tomb. He left his robe of flesh, too.
He left those garments in that grave and came out, came out
of that tomb. All right, now look back at Exodus
26 again with me. So there was two coverings. The
first two coverings, the first one was this linen, this white
linen covering that was curiously wrought from within, blue and
scarlet and purple. And then this second covering
of silky angora, goat's hair, is typical of Christ, too. Christ
our sin atonement. And now this third covenant,
verse 14. There's not much said about it,
but all it says is, verse 14, Thou shalt make a covering for
the tint of ram's skin. Ram's skin, dyed red. Bright red leather. Ram's skin. Now, look at Genesis
chapter 22. I'm going to have you turn to
several verses of Scripture. It's a Bible study, so look with me. Genesis chapter 22. This blood-red
skin of this ram speaks of one thing. One thing. That one thing needful. And the one thing which could
sum up or characterize or depict the gospel, the very heart of
the gospel, can be described in one word. Somebody like to
tell me? One word. What? Blood. Okay, but the one word I'm looking
for is substitution. Right. The gospel can be summed
up, and curiously and unbelievably, this generation has scoffed at
that, this gospel of substitution. Call it a bloody religion, but
it's the heart of the gospel. You have no gospel unless you
have substitution. That's the way it started back
in the beginning, wasn't it? The very first thing that God
did To cover a man's nakedness in sin was to kill an innocent
being, right? To kill an innocent creature. Most say it was a ram. A ram. And when Abel, when God accepted
that first sacrifice by a man, Abel, what did he bring? A ram. A male. God told us to
bring a male. A male sheep. What's a male sheep?
It's a ram. A ram. And ram speaks of substitution. And the one thing that's needful
for sinners to come into the presence of God as a substitute.
We're going to need to come in Christ or by him, by our substitute,
our representative. And there's no clearer passage
in all of the scripture of this thing of substitution than Genesis
22. I'll look at it with you. Genesis 22, verse 6. Needs no
comment. Verse 6. And Abraham took the
wood of the burn offering and laid it upon Isaac, his son.
Here's the father and the son. And he took the fire in his hand
and the knife, and they went both of them together. And Isaac
spoke unto Abraham his father, and said, Here's the son speaking
to the father, My father. Abraham said, Here am I, my son.
And he said, Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the
lamb, the kid, the ram, for a burnt offering? You can't come before
a holy God without blood. Dad, you know that. We can't
go up there and offer a strange fire unto the Lord without blood.
You've got to have a lamp. As we've said so many times here,
that our generation has the fire, they have the charisma, the so-called
spirit and so forth. They have the wood, they have
their houses and so forth, and their places of worship, so-called.
But no lamp. The blood is not being spoke
of. The blood is sacrifice. Substitution is not being spoken
of and dealt with. And Abraham said this was it.
This was the gospel in a verse. My son, God will provide himself
a lamb, a ram for our burnt offering. Somebody said that can be read
three ways. God will provide. God's the one that must provide
the lamb. And God sent Christ. He's the
sent one. God's the one that sent Christ
into the world. And God will provide himself a lamb. God himself is going to be the
one that's going to die. Feed the church of God, which
he purchased with his own blood, the scripture says. God was in
Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. Dying, the Son
of God shed his precious blood. God provided himself as that
lamb, because the mere blood of a man wouldn't do. It must
be holy, spotless, perfect, precious blood. And God will provide himself
a lamb. a lamb for a burn-off, and he's
that blood sacrifice for a burn-off. He provides it for himself, he's
the one that provided it, and he's the lamb for a burn-off.
So they both went together, and look at verse 9, And they came
to the place which God had told him of, and Abraham built an
altar, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son. and
laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth
his hand and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of
the Lord called unto him," just as he is about to plunge that
knife into the heart of his son. The angel of the Lord called
unto him out of heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. He said, And
the angel said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do
thou anything unto him. For now I know that thou fearest
God, seeing that thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only
son, from me." And Abraham lifted up his eyes. Abraham looked up,
and he saw and beheld a ram caught in the thicket by his horn. Look
unto me, and be ye saved at all the ends of the earth, for I
am God." Christ said, if I be lifted up, I'll draw all men
unto myself. This ram, caught by the horns
of his strength, by his hands and his feet, lifted up, caught
in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the
ram, laid hold upon that ram, and offered him for a burnt offering
in the stead of, in place of, his son. And Abraham called the name of
that place, God will provide, Jehovah-Jireh. And he went skipping
off that mountain, both he and Isaac both, singing the praise
of God for his substitutionary atonement. Abraham rejoiced to
see my day, Christ said. Abraham saw that lamb slain laying
on that altar for his people. He said, he saw my day and was
glad. Because he was about to kill
his boy. And he saw that ram and plunged the knife into that
ram instead of his son. He was mighty glad, wasn't he?
Mighty happy. It pleased Abraham to bruise
that ram instead of his son. And it pleased the Lord to bruise
his son in our stead. Behold what manner of love God
has bestowed upon us that he should sacrifice his own son
guilty vile sinners. OK, back in Exodus 26. And that's
that third covering, that bloody red ram's skin. Back in Exodus chapter 26, verse
14 again. And that's the fourth covering.
It's the fourth covering. Verse 14. Make a covering for
the ten of rams, skin dyed red, and a covering of bears. The
last covering was of badgers. skin, badger's skin. Now, most writers are unclear
as to what this really was, this badger. It's not the badger,
the animal that we're thinking of, a badger, small animal. Many
believe that the word actually translates porpoise, skin of
porpoise. Now that's interesting because
a porpoise skin is one of the The toughest hides, shark skin
porpoises, one of the toughest impenetrable hides or skins known
to man. And it's not particularly beautiful. It's kind of a dull gray. Some
of them are brownish looking. Some porpoises I've seen are
brownish looking. Not particularly beautiful on
the outside, but water resistant, weather resistant, impervious
to the weather. You know, most leather, when
it's saturated with water, will shrink up and draw up, and it'll
ruin, it'll become in bad shape. But if this were porpoise skin,
it'd be shrink-resistant, too. I don't know, porpoises don't
shrink up and wrinkle up, do they? All right, I think God
did this on purpose, on purpose. Christ, Christ was a plain-looking
man, a plain-looking—somebody said a man in a plain brown It's
the plain Jewish man. And when we see him, like I've
quoted before, there's no quorum or cumulus. When we see him,
there's no beauty that we should desire in him. This drab gray
or brownish gray covering, if a natural man, an average man,
came walking up, you wouldn't see much about it that would
appeal to him. But on the inside, you keep peeling
back layers. When you peel off that outside
layer, you see blood, beautiful blood. at precious blood. Go another layer deeper and you
see our atonement. You see the silky—you see that
on the heart and the mind and the soul of Christ, you see our
atonement, our scapegoat. And go even deeper and you see
the Holy One of God, the Christ, whom the cherubims praise and
honor and glorify. But that plain-looking man and
this plain, brown building in the wilderness In that was the
place where God met man, the only place. In that plain-looking
man, we find a shelter in a time of storm. We can go in and be
safe from the overflowing scourge of God's wrath. The Scripture
says, a man shall be a hiding place from the wind and a covert
from the tempest. This badger skin was hardy and
sturdy stuff, impervious to the weather. The Scripture says,
David said, Thou art my hiding place, Thou art my shield, my
covering, my covering. And when God's white, hot, holy
light shines upon me, it will not consume me, because I'm in
Christ. And when God's wrath comes raining
down upon this land, I'll be safe in Christ, because He bore
it all for me. Boy, it all. It lasted. This
thing lasted and took the punishment and trial by weather for over
forty years in the wilderness. Never shrunk, never deteriorated. Forty years, this covering, this
outer covering, never needed to be replaced. It withstood
everything that came upon it. And Christ is our eternal security,
our eternal hiding place. And He'll withstand everything
for us, all of our lives. And we can dwell safely in him
all the days of our life. We'll never perish because Christ
is our hiding place and our covering. Now, this is interesting. I thought
this was very interesting. Some said that their feet, their
shoes, were made out of this badger's skin. Now, do you remember when the Lord When Moses gave
his song, he talked about their shoes, how that their shoes never
wore out, and their feet never swelled. Well, if it was made
of this badger skin, that would tell us why. Because that represents
Christ's gospel. We're shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace, and let it wear out. It'll carry us,
and we can walk in Him all the days of our life, and we'll never
swell. We're shot with the preparation of the gospel of peace. It'll
keep us contained and keep us humble, broken before the Lord.
Never swale with pride. Always look into Him. Okay, now
look over, I want you to look at this, Ezekiel chapter 16.
Ezekiel 16. This is, I jumped another three
feet when I saw this. Ezekiel 16, I know you've seen
this. This picture of the woman or the young girl cast out into
the field, say if you've ever seen it like that. Now remember,
we've got a covering of linen, we've got a silky covering, we've
got a ram's skin dyed red, and we've got a badger's skin. OK? Four coverings. Look at Ezekiel
16, verse 10. He says about this girl cast
out into the field, I clothed thee with embroidered work. and
shod thee with badger skin, and girded thee with fine linen,
and covered thee with silk." And this is Christ. Look at this,
verse 11, "'I deck thee,' here's some ornaments she just happened
to have, "'I deck thee also with ornaments, and put bracelets
on your hand,' that's a bracelet on each hand, that's two. A chain
on your neck, that's three. A jewel on your forehead, that's
four. Earrings in your ear, five, six. A crown on your head, Seven
ornaments. How many pieces of furniture
in that tabernacle? Seven. Decked with gold and silver,
your arraignment was fine linen, silk broided work. He ate fine
flour and honey and oil. You were exceeding beautiful
and you prospered in the kingdom. And your renown went forth among
the heathen for your beauty was perfect through my comeliness
which I put upon thee, saith the Lord God. What a picture
of Christ that is. four coverings and seven ornaments.
Now, let's look at this veil. Look back at Exodus 26 with me,
again. Exodus 26. And on the inside,
the very inside of this place, was this veil that separated
the holy place from the holy of holy. Look at
it, Exodus 26, verse 31. And thou shalt make a veil of
blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen of cunning
work, with cherubims shall it be made. And thou shalt hang
it upon four pillars, hung upon four pillars of this chitim wood,
overlaid with gold, and their hooks shall be of gold upon the
four sockets of silver." And perhaps we should spend the whole
message on this veil that separated the holy place, but we're not.
We'll go along. But as he said there, it's made out of this
white linen again, this fine twined white linen of this same
blue and purple and scarlet embroidery work of the cherubims. And it
was hung upon four posts. I hope you can see it. The four
posts that separated the place, and this was hung upon it, and
this was to separate the holy place, that is, the inner court
from the holy of holy, the most holy place. Now turn over to
Hebrews chapter 10 with me. Hebrews chapter 10. The scripture
says our sins have separated us from our God. We can't get
in into the holy presence of God. Our presence has been barred. by the flaming sword, by the
cherub. Remember when God barred the way from the garden by that
flaming sword, the cherub? And our sins have separated us
from our God. The way is barred, but Christ,
the holy, spotless, righteous Son of God, he became the only
mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And he
was hung upon a tree. He was hung upon four wooden
post, if you will, or sockets of gold, golden pins and sockets
of silver. That's his hands and his feet.
He was hung up, lifted up between God and men. And here in Hebrews
chapter 10, he says in verse 19, Christ has therefore opened
a way to us. Brethren, we have boldness now
because Christ was lifted up between God and men as our go
between as our mediator, as our only substitute. We have therefore
boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus Christ,
by a new and living way which he hath consecrated, or now made
for us, through the veil. That is to say, his own flesh,
his own flesh. And having a high priest over
the house of God, Let us draw near with a true heart and full
assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience and our bodies washed with pure blood, pure water,
that is, the blood of Christ, the water and the blood." And
the first time, this earthly priest, the first time he went
in, the first time significantly that he went in, he had to crawl
under that veil. to get into that holy of holy
places, and to go in there and offer that blood, the high priest
had to crawl under it. He had to get down on his hands
and knees. He had to become lowly, meek and lowly. And that's Christ. Christ said, learn of me, I'm
meek and lowly. And he became lowly, a lowly
man, to offer up that sacrifice of his faith. And us, when we
first come to God, We must bow, we must kiss the feet of the
Son of God, we must bow at the feet of Christ himself. We don't
come boldly first into his presence, we bow down on our hands and
knees and come to this cry. But, Matthew 27, there's going
to come a time, Matthew 27, because of Christ, because he became
that veil, And because he was wounded and bruised for our iniquity,
there's going to come a time when we're going to be able to
walk right into the presence of God. When we remove this darkling
veil, we're going to walk right—we're not going to have to get down
on our hands and knees and crawl into the presence of God. We're
going to be able to come standing, standing in Christ's hand in
hand with him. But we're going to walk right
into the presence of God. We'll be as holy as him. Why?
Because Christ was torn asunder, the veil was rent. Verse 50,
And Jesus, when he cried out again with a loud voice, he yielded
up the ghost. And behold, the veil of the temple
was ripped in two. The presence of God was now opened
for all to come. The tabernacle was done away
with. The temple was done away with. The veil was rent. to bottom,
right? It's because it was so heavy
and so thick, it wasn't ripped from bottom to top, indicating
that a man might have done it. From top to bottom, God Almighty,
with His own hand, ripped that veil in two, because Christ became
our substitute. He said, Now come on in. I've
been satisfied. And now men can come unto God
by Him, by Christ, since He was bruised for our iniquities. All
right, he's reconciled, and I want you to look. I want to read this
one verse of Scripture in closing. John 19. I'll close with this. Because Christ has reconciled
us to God by his blood and his righteousness, we now have admittance,
acceptance. We now have access to God himself. He says, God himself now will
hear you through me. You can come to God by me. We've
looked at these four garments and this veil. Now look at this. John 19, verse 23. When Christ
was crucified, the soldiers, when they crucified Christ, they
took his garments and made four parts. There weren't two soldiers, there
weren't three, there weren't five, there weren't six. It just happened
to be four. They said, let's make four parts
and divide them evenly. Four parts to every soldier apart,
and also his coat. And he had this coat woven without
seam from top through out. We won't carry that. We'll leave
that in town. Oh, the wonderful Word of God. It's marvelous, isn't it? This
whole story and picture of Christ. So marvelous. Let me sing this
psalm to you, in closing. Once our blessed eyes saw beauty
Was veiled off from human view But through suffering, death,
and sorrow, He has ripped the veil in two.