Exodus 26, let's start reading
together in verse 30. And thou shalt rear up the tabernacle
according to the fashion thereof which was showed thee
in the mount. And thou shalt make a veil of blue and purple
As scarlet and fine twine linen of cunning work with cherubims
shall it be made. And thou shalt hang it upon four
pillars of sheetum wood overlaid with gold. Their hooks shall
be of gold upon the four sockets of silver. I want to talk about
the veil tonight. I know you ain't got these. They're
all out on the table out there. But that's the veil right there
with the cherubims on it. And there's the four posts of
gold posts there. And there's the cherubims just
like on the mercy seat. And the veil, of course, speaks
about our Lord Jesus Christ. If I could have my desire, and God would
enable me to do it, in every service if I was able to tell
of our Lord's glory, to tell of His person, tell of His wondrous,
blessed work, tell of His nature and His character as He's revealed
in the Scriptures. For all the prophets give witness
of Him. And God help us to be taken up
with the person of our Lord Jesus Christ He's before all things. And by Him all things consist. By Him all the worlds were created. By Him all the worlds are upheld
by the word of His power. All things by Him. And we behold
this veil and we look at this veil and may God take the veil
from our eyes and from our hearts that we can see our blessed Savior. And our vision is imperfect.
I know it's imperfect. I know mine is. I know mine is. It ought to be changed from the
glory of seeing the Lord Jesus Christ into the image one of
these days to the glory of Christ Himself. But here in Exodus 26,
we have the veil of the tabernacle. In Hebrews, and you don't have
to look at it with me, I've got it marked here, I won't read
it to you. But we're told that the veil in the tabernacle is
just a symbol of our Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh. It said
in Hebrews 10.19, Having therefore brethren boldness to enter into
the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which
he hath consecrated for us through the veil. What Bill is he talking
about? That is his flesh. You know the scripture we've
heard so many times that the new in the Old Testament is concealed. And the old in the New Testament
is revealed. And what that means is scripture
is interpreted with scripture. You take the Bible to interpret
the Bible. And when you find the tabernacle
in the Old Testament, you can go to the New Testament, find
it fulfilled in Christ. You find the sacrifices in the
Old Testament, go to the New Testament. You see them fulfilled
in Christ. You see the priesthood, everything
about what was in the Old Testament. is revealed in the Lord Jesus
Christ. So let's look at the name. The
first thing we want to look at is the name, the veil. The veil. He said in verse 31, Exodus 26,
31, Thou shalt make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet and
fine twine linen. A veil. What a veil is for, it
conceals something. Something hidden behind it which
you can't see. That's what veils are. Women wear veils. Brides wear veils. And there's
lots of people that there's behind the veil, they have a veil over
it so that you can't see behind it. There's something behind
it that you can't see. And you can't get behind it.
There's something hidden behind it. And when Moses went up on
the mountain and he stood with God face to face, he come down
and he had to put a veil on his face. Why did he have to put
a veil on his face? Because he had been in the presence
of God and there was glory shining out of his face. And the children
of Israel couldn't look upon that glory. And the reason it
says they couldn't look upon it, is because that glory that
was in Moses, and that glory that was in the law, that glory
that was in the sacrifice, is going to be done away with. Going
to be abolished. And he said, and as that veil
was taken away, God takes away the veil off our minds and off
our hearts. And I tell you, it was to conceal
the glory of God from Israel. And oh, my God, take away the
veil of unbelief that hides our soul from the knowledge of God's
blessed glory in the face and in the person of His Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And the veil of the tabernacle,
that name, the veil, what it did, it hid the priest. Behind that veil, there's a mercy
seat, That's where God sat. That's where God's presence was.
And that's where God's glory dwelt on that mercy seat. And
that veil hid that priest and hid the Shekinah glory and hid
the mercy seat and hid all the things behind that veil from
the high priest as God himself mercy rested on that mercy seat
there from the priest. And our Lord's flesh Our Lord's
flesh was the veil that concealed the glory of his blessed, blessed
person. You know, when people saw our
Lord Jesus Christ, you look at it in the scriptures, they said,
is not this Jesus the son of Mary and the son of Joseph? We know his father and we know
his mother. And so they didn't think anything
about it. And our Lord Jesus Christ just
says that He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. Made
in the likeness of it. And beloved holiness dwelt in
our Lord Jesus Christ. God dwelt in our Lord Jesus Christ. And even in the flesh. And men
didn't recognize it. Why? Because His glory was veiled
in that flesh. Veiled in that glory. And I tell
you what, I do know this. It's still veiled to most people.
When you see the Lord Jesus Christ, that's all people see. It's just
a man. They don't see God. They don't
see His glory. They don't see His majesty. They
don't see His blessed person. God manifest in the flesh. They
don't see the work that He come to undertake. The work that He
came down here to do on the behalf of sinners to honor God and glorify
God. But bless His holy name. Holiness
came down. God came down and dwelt among
men in flesh. And they didn't recognize it.
You know why they didn't recognize it? Because they was too busy
going about establishing their own righteousness, establishing
their own standing before God. But I tell you what, there's
some people that saw His glory. There's some people saw His glory.
Some people sin now. And they saw it in his flesh. And he went up on that mountain
with Peter, James, and John. And back there standing in the presence
of all of them, Moses and Elijah was there. And they're standing
there. And all of a sudden the Lord
Jesus Christ's countenance changed. Oh, it changed. He shone like
the sun. Glistening white, it said. Moses said, oh, Peter said, oh,
it's so good for us to be here. And God himself come down in
that glory and hovered over the Lord Jesus Christ and said, this
is my beloved son. You listen to him. Moses may
have been here and Elijah may have been here, but they spoke
of him, so you listen to what he's got to say. And I tell you
what, beloved, I thank God, I bless His name, that I've seen just
a glimmer, just a glimmer of His glory. I'd rather see just
a glimmer of it than not see any of it at all. Just a glimmer
of it. And our Lord's perfect humanity,
talking about a veil, it hides something for people. Christ's
glory was hid from human nature. Unless God made you see that,
until you went through the veil of His flesh and beheld His glory.
And as He shut out the high priest, our Lord's perfect humanity,
perfect humanity shut men out from God. And listen to what
I'm going to tell you here. Our Lord in His perfect humanity
shut men out from God. If our Lord Jesus Christ, He's
the perfect man, Adam, God created Adam. First man ever made from
the hand of God. Christ was made of a woman. Man
was made, Adam was the first man. He failed and every man
has been failing and sinning ever since. So our God sent His
Son in perfect humanity. Sinless humanity. Perfect man. No Adam's blood in Him. That's the God standard is His
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And if a man must be as perfect
as Christ before God can deal with him, you tell me something,
beloved, before man can be accepted with God and have fellowship
with God, if all we ever saw was His perfect humanity, it
wouldn't do us any good. Huh? If He has only incarnated
and came here and went back to glory without going through the
cross, we would have been left just like we were before we got
here. Helpless and hopeless. Right? And then our Lord Jesus
Christ in His perfect humanity, if He had only come here to be
an example for us, to be a great example for us, instead of being
a way to approach God or God to approach man, All we see is that we see what
an impossible barrier there is between us and God. We're still
left hopeless and a distance from God that you cannot possibly
imagine. Scott used to say this, he said,
you know, we need to let people see Jesus in us. They didn't
see Jesus in Jesus. Did they? And I'll tell you something,
when men look at me, and they find out I'm a preacher, and
I tell them how long I've been here and that kind of thing,
and still they can't see Christ in me, they may see some grace
in me, they may see some kindness in me, they may see some love
in me, but I tell you what, when they see me, all they see is
a preacher and a human being. But I tell you what, beloved,
they didn't see Christ in Christ. If our soul's life depended on
us, people seeing Jesus in us, there ain't no soul ever going
to be saved on this earth. Because you can only see Christ
in Christ. You can only see the Lord Jesus
in the Lord Jesus. That's a good religious jargon.
Makes folks feel guilty. Makes folks feel like they're
failing. But we're not talking about us
failing, we're talking about Christ, whether He failed or
not. And I know this, He didn't. I've been a failure all my life
at everything I've ever done, but I tell you what, I know a
God who's never failed and Christ who never failed. Oh, bless His
name. But I'm telling you, He didn't
come here to be just incarnate and go back to glory and leave
us standing here as the perfect standard. He didn't come to be
our example and then go back to glory and leave us standing
here helpless and hopeless. No, no. He come down here and
He came down here in that flesh and that flesh was veiled. But I tell you what, that's why
it says we have a new and a living way. In that Old Testament they
had to have a sacrifice in blood before they went behind that
veil. Christ beloved, He was our sacrifice. He entered into
the holiest of self with His own blood. And He opened for
us a new and a living way. Sacrifice already been given. And now we can go through that
new and living way. How? Through His flesh. That
was a veil that kept us. God ripped that veil apart. Oh
my. And then this veil. A man can
stand. Let me tell you something about
this veil. I see you know it talks about that veil. Blue,
purple, scarlet, fine twine linen. A man can go and stand before
that veil. Is that hung between him and
the dwelling place where God is. You can go and admire its
texture. Admire all them perfect colors
mingled together. Admire all that fine cutting
work and fine linen. You can say, boy, that sure is
a majestic thing and beautiful, beautiful. And all the mystery
that went into making it. Admire its beauty. And the more he stared at it
and studied it, the more he'd realize, I can't go behind that. It shuts me out from where God
is. It's behind that veil entirely concealed to God who dwells behind
it. And our own bodies, our veils, this old tent, our own bodies,
our veils, which hide us from the eternal presence of God.
And death one of these days will just rip that veil apart. You know Paul called it a tent.
He said this earthly tabernacle shall be dissolved and we have
an eternal house not made with hands in the heavens. And what
a blessed thought That one of these days, that's only a veil,
only a veil between us and God. And that's this thing right here. And then look what it said here
in the text. Thou shalt make a veil. Thou shalt make a veil.
And the veil, it says, is made of fine twined linen. Fine twined
linen. Our Lord's character, the garment
that he wore, His righteousness, His sinlessness, His perfection. Our Lord was character, and our
nature was as fine linen. Pure, spotless. Pure and spotless. Our Lord said this, He said,
Satan's coming, the prince of this world's coming, and he has
nothing in me. Can't find nothing in me. And
He said, which of you convinces me of Satan? The garment that
he closes us with, you know what it's called? It's called the white linen that's
the dress of the righteousness of the saints in heaven. Yeah,
we're clothed in white linen up there. And then that veil
was fine twined linen. Oh, our Lord Jesus Christ. Perfect,
spotless. And the veil, look what it says.
Fine twine linen of cunning work. What does in the world that cunning
work mean? Look back here in verse 1. Look
what it says. Moreover thou shalt make the
tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twine linen, blue and
purple and scarlet, with cherubims of cunning work shalt thou make
him. Now what does cunning work mean?
Well, it means this. It means purposeful, perfect
work. It means great thought went into
it, and then great regard went into making it. Someone purposed
to make it. They had regard to it, great
thought went into it, and it had to be a perfect work. And
the flesh, the human nature of our Lord Jesus Christ, His person
as God-man was indeed cunning work. Cunning work. Look with
me. Keep this and look over here
in Luke chapter 1 with me in verse 26. Luke chapter 1 verse
26. Let's look at this together. Oh, you talk of the flesh, the
human nature of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was God, then He
was manifest in the flesh. Oh, you're talking about a cunning
word. But look what he said here in Luke 1, 26. That's why he's holy, harmless,
separate from sinners, higher than the heavens. And in the
sixth month, the angel Gabriel will sit from God unto a city
of Galilee named Nazareth. And he'll sit to a virgin. espoused,
engaged to a man, going to marry a man whose name was Joseph of
the house of David. You notice that? Of the house
of David. This is Christ going to come through that house. The
house of David, the son of David. And the virgin's name was Mary.
And the angel came in under her and said, that are highly favored,
or graciously accepted, or much grace. That's what that means.
Much to grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed
art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was
troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation
this should be. And the angel said unto her,
Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor, thou hast found
grace with God. And behold, now listen to this
now. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth
a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. That means Savior, Jehovah's
Savior. Listen to this now. He shall
be great, shall be called the Son of the Highest. Yeah, that's
capitalized, both of them, Son and of the Highest. And the Lord
God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. And he shall
reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom. Listen to this. There shall be
no end. Then Mary said unto this angel,
How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? The angel said, I'm
going to tell you how it's going to happen. I'm going to tell
you how this is going to take place. I don't know a man. I can't have a child without
a man. Oh, if God's in it, you can. And the angel answered and said
unto her, The Holy Ghost, the Spirit of God, shall come upon
thee, and the power of the highest, God the highest, God over all
in all, the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy
thing, that's all he could say, that holy thing which shall be
born of thee, shall be called the Son of God. Oh, that's cunning
work, ain't it? Who else would have thought of
that? But God. God. Oh my, God confounds human
nature. And you know 1 Timothy 3.16 says
this, Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in
the flesh, seed of angels, priest unto the Gentiles, believed on
in the world, and received up into glory. There's six mysteries. Now a mystery was something that
was unknown before. And he said this is the mystery
of godliness. He said the shadow of God, God himself shall overshadow
you. And you're going to have a child
and he's going to be called the Son of God. And Paul said this
is a mystery. But I'm going to tell you what
this mystery is. I'm going to tell you. I'm going
to lay it out for you. I'm going to let you know what this is
about. Six things. First was God. God Himself. The highest God who inhabits
eternity. The heaven of heavens can't contain
Him. God was manifested in flesh. Second thing was this, He was
justified in the Spirit, justified by the Spirit. Every work, every
miracle, everything our Lord Jesus Christ did, the Holy Spirit
said, this is the Son of God, this is the Son of God, this
is the Son of God. And then when He was raised from
the dead, the Holy Spirit said, I told you He was the Son of
God. Then He was seen of angels. You know who began to sing when
our Lord Jesus Christ was born that night in Bethlehem? You know who was singing? Angels
were singing. And they started singing to them
shepherds out on the hillside tending their sheep. And they
said, over yonder in Bethlehem has a little baby born tonight. Who is he? Lord, that's who's been born
here tonight. And the angels, he said, you'll
see the angels ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.
And the angels appeared at his resurrection and said, why are
you looking for the dead? He has risen, he's not here. And
all And the angels beheld the Lord of life expire. And I'll
tell you something the angels had never been able to enter
into that you and I can. They could not conceive that
the one that they'd done His bidding in glory, done His bidding
on this earth, waited on Him, just sat with bated breath to
do whatever Christ said to do. that they would watch him who
left glory. How can this be? The one who
was with us, the one who created us, the one who put us in heaven
itself. How can he die? They couldn't understand it.
They couldn't conceive of Him dying and what it would accomplish. And this is the most astonishing
thing. They said, look who He's dying for. He's not dying for
angels. He's not dying for good men. He's not dying for people who've
done something good. He's dying for the miserablest,
blackest, sorriest people on the face of the earth. He's dying for Mary Magdalene. Seven devils. He's dying for Saul of Tarsus
who hated Him. He has died for me. He has died for me. And they stood
there and wondered how can this be? I think I am going to tell
you something. I am going to quit preaching
and tell you what I think. You know it says when we get
to heaven for the space of 30 minutes, another word says silence.
I don't know what 30 minutes in heaven is going to be like.
You know if a day is a thousand years, a thousand years is a
day, 30 minutes may be a while. But it says there be silence
for 30 minutes. You know why I think? Because
when we all land in glory at the same time, the angels are
going to stand there and wonder. So this is what it was all about. All these people. Come in here. And now look at them. They don't
look the same. They just stand there while we're
walking down the avenues of glory. Walking down through there to
the throne of our Lord Jesus Christ. And them angels are lying. And stand there in awe and wonder.
This is what it's all about. And He'll show us the exceeding
riches of His grace and His kindness. Worlds without end. Oh my! Scene of angels. Then He was priest unto the Gentiles. That's people like you and me.
You know, I tell you what, before God Christ came into this world,
salvation was of the Jews. And he was preached unto the
Gentiles, people like us. And here's a mystery that's been
known that he was believed on in the world. We're in this world and we believe on him. What a mystery! You just stop
and consider what it is you believe What it is you believe, and you'll
stand in wonder and awe. How can anybody believe such
a thing? God. You believe that God was in human
flesh? Yes. Was He God before His man? Yes. Was He man? Will He ever
cease to be? No. He come here to do a work. And
He accomplished it. Come here to save us from sin,
and He did it. Come here to honor God, and He
did it. Oh my, just consider what it
is you believe. Believe that there's nothing,
absolutely nothing you've ever thought, said, or did that will
contribute to your salvation before you're saved, while you're
saved, and as long as you're saved. Not one thing. Not a thought
you ever thought, not a word you've ever said, not a step
you ever took. And God can look on and say,
that's good. But I tell you what, God can look at His Son and then
look at us and say, I'm well pleased. To believe that we're as righteous
right now as we're ever going to be. We're accepted of God
as we're going to be. That we're seated with Christ
in the heavenly. You think about that. And we're
talking about this body going to the dust and then being raised
again. In a new body. You start thinking about what
you believe and I tell you why people start scratching their
heads. I don't know if them folks got good sense or not. And all listen to this. Here's
the sixth thing. He was received up into glory. He said, I go back. Father, give me the glory which
I had with you before the world was. And up to glory he went. And you know what? Herman Moore,
I don't know if any of y'all ever listened to it, but he used
to be the pastor before Tim James ever come over to Cherokee. Herman
Moore. He'd been gone for years, but
he had a message called, There's a man in glory. If you can find
that, you need to listen to it. There's a man in glory. There's
a man sitting at God's right hand. And beloved, that man can
be touched with the feelings of our infirmity. And oh, who
but the Lord Jesus Christ could have ever suggested such a type
and called it the veil. And then let's look back over
here in Exodus 26. Oh my. Cunning work. Our Lord Jesus
Christ. What a work that He come in here. The work that He came as a man
through the womb of a virgin. Then the cunning work He did
to save us. The cunning work He did to honor
God and bless His holy name. And then look at the colors here.
Blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twine linen. with cherubims shall
it be white. The colors. You know what blue
is? You ever look up at the sky and
see how blue it is sometimes? Especially in October. It's a
beautiful blue sky. Blue is a heavenly color. I look up at the sky sometimes
and say only God could make a color like that. And there he is, it's a heavenly
color, blue. Now Lord Jesus Christ, guess
where he comes from? He comes from heaven. He's heavenly,
heavenly. The color of the sky. And I tell
you what, blue, purple and scarlet, the same colors are in the gates,
the same colors are in the door. Every one of them is all the
same color. Blue and scarlet and purple and fine twine linen.
The one going into the tabernacle, The veil behind the mercy seat
and three gates are there. And every one of them is made
of blue and purple fine twine linen. You know why they are
all the same throughout? Because they all tell about the
same man. The Lord Jesus Christ never changes. Same today, yesterday and forever.
Then you have that blue. You have that gold, that blue
there, that gold that came down on those posts was blue on the
bottom of them. Gold and blue closely linked
together in scripture. The ephod was gold and blue.
The breastplate that the priest wore was gold and blue. The gold
speaks of our Lord's deity and the wealth and riches He has
in His person, in His grace, in His blessed name, and in His
glory. And then that blue talks about
heaven and earth mixed together in our blessed Savior, our Lord
Jesus Christ. And so I tell you what, and then
scarlet, blue, heavenly. Blue is the color of the sky.
And there's scarlet. Scarlet is the color of the earth. And also it's the color of royalty.
Royalty. Kings robes was made out of scarlet. Light scarlet. Color of earth. And there's another
picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was born of a woman. He's
of the earth. Come through a woman who is of
the earth. But when he was born, he was born King of the Jews.
He had a right to wear a robe. Royal robe. He was David's son. And he alone, our Lord Jesus
Christ alone has the title to the throne and the sovereignty
of this world. He's called the King of Kings
and Lord of Lords. And I remember, I know I've told
you this before. And I used to go to a pre-millennial,
fundamental, pre-millennial, independent, Baptist church.
And they'd have me preach pretty often. And they didn't believe
that the Christ was coming and wasn't king until he come and
set up his kingdom on earth. I got up, preached out of Acts
17 and said, there's another king, even one Jesus. And I preach
that Christ is king right now. He was king before he got here.
King while he's here. And he's king of all kings. Lord
of all lords. And they excluded us from that
church. Said, oh, that's heresy. That's
heresy. Well, if it is, I'm a heretic,
that's for sure. Because I believe, you know,
God, He told David, He said, David, I'm going to establish
your throne forever. David's dead and buried. So whose
throne was He talking about? I read it over there. He shall
sit on the throne of his day, throne David, and of his kingdom
there shall be no end. You know the only person who's
got a title to a real throne? Everybody on this earth. You
know the queen over there's got a throne. When her son takes
over as king, he's going to have a throne. They're pretenders. There's only one king. And he
sits on the throne in glory. And then I'll tell you something
else about Scarlet. So it's the color of earth, though
your sins be as scarlet. Oh! He said, I'll tell you what
I'll do with them. Since I was of the earth, born
of a woman. He said, I'll make your sins
white as snow. And then purple. Purple. Blue, scarlet, and purple. You
know how you get purple? You mix blue and scarlet together. So he's blue, he's from heaven. Scarlet is of the earth. You mix blue and scarlet and
you get purple. And here our Lord Jesus Christ
is the God-man in one undivided person, divine and human. Our
mediator, our royal priest, our Emmanuel. God come down with
us. And look at the orders of these
colors. Blue, purple, scarlet. It's mentioned 24 times in Exodus. And it's never varied. And why
is it never varied? Always the same order. Because
it's telling us about our Lord Jesus Christ and our salvation. we must have heaven and earth
together to save us Christ in glory and when Christ came down
here he could reach all the way to heaven and he could reach
all the way to earth while he was here he could touch God and
touch man and I tell you what we need heaven
and earth to save us And Christ was both. And the Lord Jesus
Christ, the object of our faith, not a nature or not a nature's,
but Him. He was born of a woman, though
He eternally existed as the Son of God. He died on the cross,
though He was the mighty God. And then let me give you the
third thing and I'll be done. Look where the position of this
veil was. It hung right in front of the mercy seat. The ark that
was in that mercy seat is separated between the holy place and the
holiest of holies. And only the priest could go
through that veil into God's presence. And only he could go
in there once a year. Once a year. And he had to have
blood before he went behind that veil. Had to have blood. He had to have blood. They shed
blood out there and he put it in a basin and he went behind
that veil with that blood. And he sprinkled it on that mercy
seat. Sprinkled before and sprinkled on it. And there's only one way
to that mercy seat was through that veil. Only one way behind
that veil is through the blood. The holy of holies could not
be entered but by blood. And once that veil was lifted
and that high priest went behind that veil, he alone, he alone
was dealing with God. And he was dealing with God on
behalf of all them people standing out there. Huh? And our Lord
Jesus Christ lifted up on that cross that shed his blood. And now, beloved, has opened
for us a new and a living way where we can go into the holiest. He's already made us accepted. Already opened a way for us.
And now, beloved, we ourselves can go into the holiest of holies
by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Huh? Oh my. And then I want to show you one
thing. Let me go up here to Mark 15. Look at Mark 15 with me.
Let's look in Mark 15 together. In verse 38. Look what it says here. And Jesus cried with a loud voice
and gave up the ghost. Now watch what happens. And the
veil of the temple was rent in two, rent in train from the top
to the bottom. And Christ cried out. That veil
was about four inches thick. Now I don't know what it was
in the holiest of holies when it was in the tabernacle. But
that veil when Christ died and cried with his loud voice, that
thing went from top to bottom. It was ripped wide open. It was
one great big veil all together. God just ripped it in two. Huh? From top to bottom. Who ripped
that thing in two? God did. Why? Because the way is open
now. Only the high priest can go by
there. Now everybody can go in. They can see that the way is
open. Huh? If it was the work of man, they'd
have to got to the bottom and start cutting. But it says it
went from top to bottom. Oh my! Now, God Himself ripped
the veil. And what was that veil that He
ripped? The flesh of His own blessed Son. Now a way into the
presence of God is opened. He met all the righteous claims
of God. Satisfied God's infinite justice. He established righteousness
in this earth. And now, beloved, it's opened. Opened. From top right down the
middle. And let me tell you something
about that. Our Lord, that high priest had
to slip behind the veil. We're not sneaking behind the
veil. We don't sneak around in God's presence. No, he didn't
open a side entrance by his atoning death. That ark and that mercy
seat in the Shekinah glory stood in the center of the holiest
of holies. And that veil was rent right in front of the mercy
seat. There's nothing to do now but
enter in there by faith. And I'll tell you something,
can you imagine how those Jews felt? Can you imagine how those
Jews felt that ministered at that tabernacle and that temple
day after day after day? And they act like they're such
mysterious. When they opened that thing up, there wasn't no
ark there, there wasn't no mercy seat there, there wasn't nothing
behind it. They had an empty, empty religion. And God opened
it up to show how empty their religion was and how full ours
was. And I'll tell you, it was ripped
completely in two from top to bottom. I'm going to tell you
something, there wasn't a thread left in the way for us to break
to get in. Huh? We don't need to... Here, let's open it up a little
wider. No, no, it's wide enough. I opened it up. Oh, rent from top to bottom.
There was not a thread left in the way. And what that tells
us is this. Grace began our salvation. Grace, by His grace, Our salvation
will be finished. When our Lord Jesus Christ said
it is finished, it was finished. And now, beloved, He shows us
there's only one way into the presence of God, and that's through
our Lord Jesus Christ. Only one way in all of life. And I'll tell you what, let me
tell you a secret. Everybody that's come to Christ
stands in the holiest of holies with Him. You know that? I don't even see
a veil. Do you see a veil anywhere? Do you see something holding you
out, keeping you out? No. Open, open, open, open. Our blessed, blessed Master,
our Lord Jesus, blessed be Your name, blessed be Your holy name,
who is like unto Thee in mercy, compassion, forgiveness, righteousness,
who is like unto Thee in glory, grace, majesty, who is like unto thee in mercy. Lord, we bless you for opening
to us a way into your presence. We come now into the very presence
of God. We thank you for that. We bless
you for it. Praise you for it. The Lord bless these dear saints
and again we pray for all those that Kyle mentioned. Pray for
Bill and Dortha, Bruce and Sandy, these dear, dear people of God.
Meet all their needs, strengthen them, comfort and encourage them.
Take away their fears and their anxieties for Christ's sake. Keep us all Keep us all safe. Keep us as we travel. Keep us
as we go about our daily lives. Help us to keep our hearts and
minds stayed on you. We ask these things in our Lord
Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Let's turn to 268
in our hymn book.