how wonderful it will be to see
the One who loved us and gave Himself for us. We see Him face
to face. If you would, go back to the
book of Hebrews where Matt read to us Hebrews chapter number
10. Hebrews chapter 10. And this evening, if God the
Spirit would enable me, I want to speak to you on the rent veil. The rent veil. Let's again ask God's blessing
on the service. Lord, we come now to the to a special
time during this meeting together when we open Your Word and we
seek to hear a message from the Spirit of God speaking through
a man. Lord, bless the one who speaks
and bless these who are being spoken to Father, we read that a man can
receive nothing except to be given Him from above. O merciful
God, give us of Your mercy and of Your grace tonight. Do with
us as the Savior did for His disciples after His resurrection
when He appeared to them and He opened their understanding
that they might understand the Word of God. Reveal to us anew and afresh
our Exalted Master, our Great High Priest, who by virtue of
His own bloody sacrifice has now entered into the heavens
and taken His position at the right hand of the Father. And He, still bearing in His
body the marks of redemption, He sits there as our Mediator,
as our Great High Priest, as our Prophet, and as our King. And He rules over all things
to fulfill your eternal purpose, Father, and to work all things
for the spiritual good of your children. It's such a privilege
to meet tonight in the name of our Lord Jesus, the name which
is above every name. And we're so thankful that you
have gathered us together. And so if you would speak to
us, Lord, tonight through the Word of God, we ask these things
in the name of the Lamb of God, who was smitten for our sins,
and for His sake, amen. This morning, I endeavored to
set before you more information about the tabernacle. It was
divided, as we said this morning, into three parts. There was the
outer court, and then the holy place, and then the holiest of
all. In each of those, there was an
entrance. There was a gate, the gate into
the outer court. That was the only way in, reminding
us that our Lord Jesus said, I am the way. I'm the way to
God. I walk through our neighborhood
quite often. Kind of have a regular route
that I walk and takes me by Dick and Sheila's house where they
used to live and then on out by Evelyn's house. And one of
the houses that I go by has all of these statues in the yard. And there is, I presume, a statue
of Mary. I suppose that's who she's supposed
to represent. And then on in a not as big a
statue is a statue of Jesus. I suppose that's who that's supposed
to be. They're just idols. That's not
the living God and neither one of those idols are the way by
which we approach God. We come to God by a new and living
way, Christ Jesus. He's the way. No dead saint. If you have at home, or if you
happen to have it on you now, on your necklace, perhaps, an
image of one of the dead saints, you need to remove that and get
rid of it. And if you have pictures of Mary,
as men have imagined her to be, you need to get rid of those.
And if you've got a picture of one who's supposed to be Jesus,
that's an idol. You need to be rid of it. Our
Lord Jesus is the living way. He's not dead. He's not a statue. He's not an image. He's the God-man. He's the person of our Redeemer. and by Him we enter into the
presence of God. The outer court then had what
was called the gate of the court. Our Lord Jesus is the gate to
fellowship with God. To go back to that verse and
finish it, Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father but by me. words in the Word of God are
vital. And those words are so, so simple,
I don't understand how anybody can misunderstand. You can't
come to God except by the Lord Jesus Christ. And then there
was the door in the holy place. And again, that reminds us of
John chapter 10 where the Savior said, I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved and go in and out and find pasture. And then there was another entrance,
a third entrance, and that was the entrance into the Holy of
Holies. The veil. The veil. And there's God. God said, I'll
reside here. I'll commune with you here. I'll
speak with you here. God who is life. God who is salvation. To know this God is eternal life. Our Savior said that in John
chapter 17. He said, this is eternal life,
that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ
whom Thou hast sent. You want life? Life's in Christ. He's the way, He is the truth,
and He is the life. On the other side of that veil,
of that thick veil on the other side was the Ark of the Covenant
with the mercy seat on top. This evening we want to talk
about that veil, that thick veil. It is said it was so thick, about
four inches thick it is said, That team of oxen on either side,
if they pulled in opposite directions, they couldn't pull that veil
apart. Nobody could rip that veil. Nobody could tear that veil. It was there to stay until our
Lord Jesus ripped it apart by His death. And I'll show you
that before we finish the message. That veil, it separated the priests
from the holy of holies. Separated the priests from the
presence of God. Each one of those, the gate to
the outer court, the door to the holy place, the veil into
the holy of holies, each one of those was a separation. a division, dividing this into
three parts. And only if you could go through
the first entrance It's interesting, and I wouldn't debate with anybody
about this, but I've tried to do quite a bit of research from
the Word of God, of course, and from all of the books that I
have at my disposal. There are differences of opinion
as to who could go into the outer court. Some say the average Jew
could not go into the outer court. Others say they could enter in
through that gate into the outer court, but only so far as the
brazen altar. I don't know, so I can't be dogmatic
about that. I even consulted some Jewish
historians, Jewish writers, and some said that they could enter
into the outer court. But they could not have permission
to go into the holy place. Only the priest could go in there.
And of course we know that is accurate. And then we know that
only one man could go into the Holy of Holies, and that was
the high priest, and he only one time during the year, and
that was on the Day of Atonement, nowadays called Yom Kippur, which
is, this year is gonna be observed the middle of September, I forget,
15 and 16, something like that. But into that holy of holies
only one man could go, and that was the high priest. And he only
once a year, and then not without blood. Not without blood. There was a veil hanging there,
and that veil was typical of our Lord Jesus, His own humanity. Look here in Hebrews chapter
10. Let me make good on that. Look
at Hebrews chapter 10. And I'll begin reading with verse
18. Now, where remission of these
is, that is sins and iniquities, it's a promise of the new covenant,
a promise of the covenant of grace, verse 17, there's sins
and iniquities will I remember no more. God said that. I'll just insert something here
of a personal note. I received in the mail yesterday
a booklet and it talks about will there be a judgment for
believers in the future. And of course the passage of
scripture in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, the judgment seat of Christ
was mentioned and then judgment by works. And this particular
writer said that each believer will be judged according to their
works, both good and evil, and then that would be the basis
of whatever reward we will get or whatever rewards we will miss
out on giving. And then he went on to say that
believers will be put to shame for all the sins and iniquities
that we have committed. And then God will say, I freely,
fully forgive you of your sins. And then reward us based upon
our faithfulness. My Bible says, in verse 17, God
says, their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. I think I'll just take God's
Word for that. Your sins and your iniquities,
now, there are some of them you remember. Some sins that stand out in our
memories. Maybe sins that still haunt us. Sins perhaps committed before
conversion. Or maybe sins committed after
conversion and they trouble us. And even though you know, and
I know, that the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ cleanses us
from all sins, yet they nag us and they kind of gnaw away at
the conscience. But God says, God says, there
are sins and there are iniquities. There are inequities. all the
times that we've missed the mark of perfection. God says, I will
not remember them. In fact, we read in the book
of Jeremiah, the sins of Judah and of Israel in that day shall
be sought for and shall not be found. They don't exist in the
mind of God, in His justice, in His judgment. That's already
been satisfied by the substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus.
So let me say to anybody who is burdened with guilt, Rejoice that your sins are forgiven
and put away and God doesn't remember them. Get on with your
life. Don't be bogged down with guilt
that God says, I don't remember it. If God doesn't remember it,
if the blood of the Lord Jesus has washed them all away, let's
rejoice in full and free forgiveness. Does that make sense? I don't
know why we get so mired up in guilt and we're troubled. Well, we as a people of God,
we confess our sins to the Lord and then get on with living.
Get on with rejoicing in the grace of God. Get on with blessing
the name of the Lord Jesus whose blood washed all our sins away. And he says, I'll never remember
them again. That's great cause for rejoicing.
Well, let's keep on going. Now verse 18, now where remission
of these is, there's no more offering for sin. There's one
offering that's been offered for sin. That's the offering
of the body of Christ Jesus once for all. In the Old Testament,
there at the tabernacle, they had a morning sacrifice, they
had an evening sacrifice. that all the sacrifices that
individuals and families brought there to the gate of the outer
court, and they spoke to a priest, and then a priest put that animal
up on the brazen altar, having shed its blood, and offered that
to God. That's not necessary anymore.
because there's no more offering for sin. The offering of our
Lord Jesus has already been presented to the Father. No doubt thousands
upon thousands, probably hundreds of thousands of animals died
on Jewish altars in the Old Testament, but none of them put any sins
away. But this man, when he died, he
put sin away. And he brought in everlasting
righteousness. One offering. This is what's wrong with the
mass. The mass is the offering of the
body of Jesus Christ over and over and over again. It's a repetition
of his death. He died unto sin once. Once. And God was satisfied. Now verse 19, having therefore,
brethren, based upon this one offering, not based upon how
you feel. Well, preacher, I don't feel
saved. What does it feel like to be
saved? You can't go by feelings. Luther
said, feelings come and feelings go and feelings are deceiving.
He said, I trust the Word of God. Nought else is worth believing. You can't trust your feelings,
but you can sure trust God's Word. That's where our assurance,
that's where it comes from. Having therefore brethren, but
brethren, what's the basis for us being brethren? We have the
same Father. God's our Father. He adopted
us into His family. He predestinated us unto the
adoption of children by Jesus Christ Himself before the world
began. We're His children. And because
we are His children, He sent the Spirit of God into our hearts
leading us to cry, Abba Father. He converted us, He saved us,
He regenerated us. We were born again because we
were His children. Not to be His children, but we
were already His children. Lost children, yes. Spiritually
dead children, yeah. Wayward sheep, yes. Wandering
sheep, yes. But we were sheep. We were never
goats. And we were the people of God.
We were the children of God. Having therefore brethren, brethren,
boldness to enter into the holiest. Now, what's the holiest? That's
the holiest of all. That's into the presence of God.
I'll go back to what I said this morning and what we've been saying
through this study of the tabernacle. Outer court, holy place, holiest
of all. And here the inspired writer,
writing by the direction of the Holy Spirit says, we have brethren
boldness since there's been one offering for sin that has forever
settled the issue We have boldness to enter into
the holiest, into the holy of holies, where no man could go except
the high priest once a year. We have boldness to go where
no other man could go save the high priest. We go back there. We go into the presence of God
by the blood of Jesus. by his sacrifice, by his substitutionary
death. And he continues, look at verse
20, by new and living way. He's not a dead way, he's a living
way. He's not still dead. Those who have started religions
from the beginning of time, they're dead. They're still dead. They'll stay dead to the resurrection. And God will raise their bodies
and join their souls back to them and cast them into hell
forever. But our Lord Jesus is the living
way. Yes, He died, but He came back. He said, I have the power to
lay down my life and I have power to take it again. This commandment
have I received of my Father. So this is a new and living way. A once for all way. Watch it. Which He had consecrated, that
is dedicated for us through the veil That is to say,
now we come to understand what that veil signified. His flesh. His own humanity. And having a high priest over
the household of God. It isn't as though we don't have
a high priest. We have a high priest. But he's
not in Rome. He's not in Washington D.C. or he's not in Huntington. He's
not in Ashland. We have a high priest who's at
the right hand of God. He's the high priest over all
the house of God, over all the household of God, over all the
family of God. We have a high priest. He says
in verse 22, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance
of faith. Full assurance of faith in who? In Him. And in the fact that
He laid down His life and got satisfied. How can God be just
and justify through that sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus? I have
full assurance. When I look into the Word of
God, I have full assurance of faith that He settled the issue
for me because I've been brought to cast my soul upon Him for
full salvation. Having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience, our bodies washed with pure water, that
is the Word of God. Learn this then. Our Lord in a body just like
any of you men, just like us, virtually, wasn't anything special
about His outward appearance. Our Lord in His body, in His
humanity, as long as that body was unrent. Now you know what unrent means,
as long as up until the time that He was crucified. As long
as our Lord, His body was unrent, that is, as long as He lived
in that perfect humanity, though His obedience was not faulty
in any way, Yet until he died, men were still
shut out of the presence of God. It was by his bloody death that's
how he paid our debt. I wouldn't take anything away
from his perfect life at all. But his perfect life It was lived
as he honored God's law, he honored civil law, he honored Jewish
law, he honored parental law. But his life, his unrent obedience,
his unrent body, could not by any means open the way into the
Holy of Holies. not his body unrent, that veil of his own flesh, perfect
in every way, obedient to every law, typified by the fine twine
linen, even his obedience through life could not bring anybody
into the presence of God. only by his death. That's why, this is what Paul
says in 1 Corinthians. We preach Christ. That's not enough. We preach Christ crucified. That's what he said. We preach
Christ crucified. A bloodless, a bloodless, A savior
won't save anybody by his life. Rather, I'll tell you something,
his perfect life showed he was qualified. He was fit. He was worthy to be that lamb
offered to God as a sacrifice for the sins of his people. And
he was. You see, it's like that veil
that hung there separating the holy place from the holy of holies. It was beautiful with all of
its colors of blue and purple and scarlet. But to attempt to
go into the holy of holies by scooting around or underneath
that veil would mean certain death for you. And as long as
that veil remained unrent, it was a continual testimony of
the vast distance between a holy God and sinful men. It was a gulf which no man could
bridge. The only one who could bring
an offended holy God and an offensive, filthy sinner together is that
one whose flesh must be rent. That's the only way. That's the
only way peace could be made with God. Look back at Hebrews chapter
9. Let me read you a few verses here in Hebrews chapter 9. And I'll start at verse one.
Thus verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine
service in a worldly sanctuary, an earthly sanctuary, for there
was a tabernacle. There was a tabernacle made,
made by Moses according to the pattern that God gave to him
in the mount. The first, that is the holy place,
wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the showbread,
which is called the sanctuary. And after the second veil, the
tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all, which had the
golden censer, The ark of the covenant overlaid round about
with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's
rod that budded in the tables of the covenant. And over it
the cherubims of glory, shadowing the mercy seat of which we cannot
now speak particularly." And of course, he's writing to Hebrews. He's writing to Jews who were
very well acquainted with the tabernacle. So he said, I'm not
going to go into this in more detail because you folks know. Verse 6, Now when these things
were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle,
the first room, the holy place, accomplishing the service of
God. But into the second went the high priest, Once every year, underline this
if you haven't underlined it, not without blood. That is so
vital. Not without blood. which he offered for himself
and for the errands of the people." And this was the big difference
between Aaron's high priesthood, for instance, and our Lord Jesus. Of course, there were other high
priests who succeeded Aaron when he died. But Aaron, when he,
on the Day of Atonement, when he was going to offer a sacrifice
for the sins of the people of Israel, he first of all had to
offer a sacrifice for his own. And he's got to go back there
in the holiest of all, and he's got to sprinkle the blood of
the animal that died in his stead. And then he's got to sprinkle
the blood of the other animal, the goat, that was for the Lord. And that would be to cover the
sins of Israel for another year. So he had to offer a sacrifice
for himself, a sacrifice for the people, for the errors of
the people. Verse 8, the Holy Ghost thus signifying that the
way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest. It wasn't
made clear and open yet while the first tabernacle was yet
standing. And then he says, which was a
figure. That first tabernacle was a figure. It was a picture. Literally,
the word is parable. It was a parable for the time
then present in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that
could not make Him that did the service perfect as pertaining
to the conscience. It couldn't satisfy the conscience
that sin had been put away because sin had not been put away. The blood of bulls and goats
couldn't do that. Well, what was the necessity
of these things? Verse 10, Which stood only in
meats, and drinks, and divers, washings, and carnal ordinances,
imposed or laid on them until the time of reformation. And that's not talking about
a Reformation in the 1500s either. What does the word Reformation
mean? Under the time of straightening things out. That's what it means. When crooked things are made
straight. And I know some of y'all and
I have read, of course, of the Protestant Reformation. And sometimes I appreciate what
those guys say, and then sometimes I read them and I don't think
they know what they're talking about. I read something the other day.
It was talking about Reformed theology, Reformed doctrine.
It said, our church believes Reformed doctrine and Reformed
truth. Truth can't be Reformed. Truth can't be reformed because
the word reform means straighten out. True doctrine can't be reformed. A true doctrine is good. And I understand how people use
the word today. Some people use the word to mean,
you know, we align ourselves with the sovereign grace people.
We're Reformed people. Well, you're really using the
word wrong. That's an improper use of the
word Reformed. Now maybe your church, the church
that somebody goes to is Reformed, somebody straightened it out.
Okay? But you can't straighten out
truth. You can't straighten out God's doctrine. It's true whether
you believe it or not. You see, the reformation we really
need to be talking about is the reformation that happened
2,000 years ago when the Lord's only begotten Son came into this
world to straighten things out. And He did that by His substitutionary
sacrifice on the cross. Now major on that reformation. You could read Luther and Calvin
and these guys. You'll read them one day and
say, boy, these guys really knew something about the gospel. And
the next day you'll read them and you'll say, I don't know
if they knew anything about the gospel at all. They'll almost
confuse you. But God's Word won't confuse
you. Not if you read it under the illumination of the Spirit
of God. You see, the Reformation that
really straightened everything out was at the cross of Calvary. Ah, that's the Reformation. Major
on that Reformation. You don't need to know anything
about what happened in the 1400s or the 1500s or the 1600s. Really,
you don't. But you do need to know something
about what happened 2000 years ago. Major on that. Our Lord straightened everything
out. He straightened them out. And by His preaching, He was
setting forth truth, and they killed Him for it. But in his
death, he opened the way to God. Turn with me now to Matthew 27. Look at Matthew chapter 27. Now,
I'll tell you, I'm Baptist. Not in all capital letters. I'm
not a big, big, big Baptist, but I am Baptist. And we Baptists,
we didn't reform. We just believed the truth. Look at Matthew chapter 27. Matthew
chapter 27. Look at verse 45. Now, from the sixth hour, there
was darkness over the land until the ninth hour. What happened
at the ninth hour, three in the afternoon? Well, one peak over,
one little mountain over at Mount Moriah, that's where the temple
was. Over there at three in the afternoon,
They killed the evening sacrifice. And I would venture to say there
were hundreds if not thousands of people watching as that evening
sacrifice was offered because it was at Passover time. Lots
of people there. So when they were offering, the
priest was offering, or the high priest was offering, the evening
sacrifice that evening, lamb, they had lamb died in the morning,
lamb died in the evening. Remember, the fire could never
go out. We've studied that already. As they were offering that, people
huddled around watching. Verse 46. Yeah, 46. Now about the 9th hour, the 6th
hour was noon, sorry. Verse 46, the 9th hour, that's
3 o'clock, Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama,
sabachthani, that is to say, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Some of them that stood there,
when they heard that, said, This man calls for Elias. And straightway
one of them ran, and took a sponge, and filled it with vinegar, and
put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. The rest said, Let
be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him. Jesus,
when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the
ghost, and behold, When his veil was rent, his flesh,
we know that from Hebrews chapter 10. When his flesh was rent,
when he died, behold the veil of the temple that was a picture
of, His own flesh. Something happened to that veil.
The veil of the temple was ripped in twain from the top to the
bottom. I told you, two oxen pulling
this way and two oxen pulling that way couldn't tear that veil
apart. So the Jews say, that's how thickly
and tightly woven it was. But when our Lord Jesus died,
when His flesh, when His veil was rent, that veil in the temple,
it rent from top to bottom. Man couldn't do that. That's
an impossibility for man to rend it from top to bottom. Man can't
make a way into the presence of God. Only the Lord Jesus can
make a way into the presence of God. And He not only made
the way, He is the way. He doesn't say, I'm gonna show
you the way. He says, I'm the way. I'm the
way. And then, The earth did quake. The rocks rent. Graves were opened. Many bodies of the saints would
slip, arose, and came out of the graves after His resurrection.
A lot of unusual things happened when our Lord Jesus died. But
of them all, this rending of the veil, it stands out above
all of them because we know now what a lot of people didn't know. They didn't have as much information
as we had. They didn't have the book of Hebrews chapter 10 that
they could turn to and read and see that the veil is His flesh. They didn't have that. But we do. And when His flesh was rent,
His humanity was rent when He died, He, by his own godhood,
by his own deity, he ripped that veil into from top to bottom, indicating the way into God's
presence is open. Indicating sin has been paid
for. the indebtedness of all of God's
people has been fully retired. And righteousness, which we absolutely
had to have, was established and brought in. He justified
his people. Last verse of chapter four of
Romans. And because he justified us,
God raised him from the dead. The veil was rent. Oh, how necessary is the death
of the Lord Jesus. Never, never minimize how vital
it was that he shed his blood to his death. Ours is indeed a bloody religion. It's a religion of sacrifice. It's a religion wherein Christ,
the Lord of glory, came down here and joined Himself to our
humanity. And as the God-man, He submitted
Himself to the wrath of men, and they did all that they could
possibly do to Him. And He submitted Himself to the
wrath of God. And the justice of God treated
him just like he needed to be treated
because all of the iniquities of his people had been imputed
to him. And he had to answer. And justice
poured out the fullness of its wrath on him until he had finally
drank the cup of damnation dry. And then he said, it is finished.
And he bowed his head. He said, father into thy hands,
I commend my spirit. And he gave up the ghost. Nobody
took his life from him. He gave it up willingly and he
gave it up for us. In order that we would have free
access, free access into the very presence of God. No wonder
we're admonished, come boldly. Come boldly to the throne of
grace. Because you see, you go in, we go in now into the very
presence of God where the Old Testament priests couldn't even
go. They couldn't go. You know how come we can go?
Because our Lord's His humanity was rent for us. And because
we now constitute the priesthood. I'm not your priest. I was giving blood one time up
in Michigan. This guy came up to me and said,
Father Bird, how are you today? I said, I'm not your daddy. There's only two people in this
world who can call me Father. Right there says one of them,
the other one's over in Japan. I'm not your father, I'm not
your priest. If you're a believer, you're
a priest. And we all have one great high
priest who represents us in the heavenlies. Christ Jesus the
Lord. And His veil, the veil of His
own humanity was rent. and we have full access to God
anytime, anywhere. You can be washing dishes, driving
your car, out hunting, fishing, it don't matter where you are. And in your mind, you can be
praying to God, confident that because the Savior died for you
and ever lives for you, God receives you for Christ's sake. I like
that story. I'll give it to you quickly.
You've heard it probably. There was a Catholic priest and
he was at a Catholic hospital and he would just go door to
door. He was the chaplain of the hospital
and he would visit with people and the nurses at the nursing
station would kind of give him a little bit of a heads up as
to the condition of the patients And he went by, and he said,
what about the lady that occupies that room, that patient there?
And they said, she's really weak. She's really weak. Don't think
she'll last much longer. He said, OK. He said, I'll give
her last rites. So he went into the room, and
he said, ma'am, I'm Father So-and-so, and I'm here to absolve you of
your sins. She said, excuse me? He said, I'm Father so and so
and I'm here to absolve you of your sins. She said, let me see
your hands. And he thought, well, she's delirious. And so he held out his hand.
She said, you can't absolve me of my sins. He said, I can't. She said, no, there are no nail
prints there. See, the only one who can absolve
you of your sins has nail prints in his hands. He's the exalted
savior. And he ever lives to make intercession
for folks like us. Has come boldly to the throne
of grace. Find mercy to help. an hour of
need. Let's close. Lord, I pray that
you'll bless the message tonight. We're so grateful, so very, very
thankful for the sacrifice of the Savior. And we know that
the rending of His own flesh, His death upon the cross of Calvary,
satisfied Your justice for all those in whose stead He died,
and He ever lives to represent us on high. And
He, by His once, once for all offering, has opened up the way,
Father, for us to come to You. and we do draw near to you tonight
through that crimson flow of the blood of the Christ of Calvary. And we rejoice to know that because
of who He is and all that He's done for us, He ever rules, and
our sins and our iniquities, you have said, you'll remember
no more. He is our assurance of salvation,
We believe Him and we trust Him. We ask You to gift us with a
deeper, more abiding faith. Lord, send us home rejoicing
in the Savior, in whose name I thank You for all things and
in whose name I pray. Amen.